Anna Greki

Greki, Anna (pseud. of Colette Anna Melki, née Grégoire) (1931-66). Algerian poet. She was born in Batna and educated in Collo and Philippeville, then worked as a primary-school teacher in Annaba and Algiers and joined the Parti Communiste Algérien. Arrested in 1957, she was imprisoned and tortured in Barberousse, transferred to Beni-Messous, and expelled from Algeria in 1958. She lived in Tunis and only resumed her teaching career in Algeria in 1965. She left two collections of poems (the second published after her sudden death in 1966) in which, in a lyrical manner, she combines love for her country with an ardent hope and support for its imminent liberation: Algérie, capitale Alger (1963), Temps forts (1966).

[Francoise Little]