Kiki Dimoula, acclaimed poet, dies at 88

Kiki Dimoula, an acclaimed Greek poet and Academy of Athens member, has died at the age of 88.

The cause was a heart attack, the hospital where she spent her last 20 days announced. She died a little before 6 p.m. Saturday, the announcement says.

Born in Athens on June 6, 1931, Vassiliki Radou worked at the Bank of Greece, the country's central banki, from 1949 to 1973. Her husband, civil engineer Athos Dimoulas, was also a published poet, but her reputation far outshined his, despite the fact that she disowned her first collection, published in 1952.

Dimoula's reputation had been firmly established by the 1960s and, since the 1970s, she has received many awards, including the European Prize for Litterature in 2009. She became a member of the Athens Academy in 2002, the third woman to be elected at the Literature chair.

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