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Litsa Psarafti began her life on the island of Samos, in Greece, in July 1936. Seven years later, in 1943, during World War II, she and her family, like the majority of the inhabitants, had to flee when the Nazis started bombing and devastating Samos. A refugee camp in the Middle East became her home for the next two years. By the age of nine, she had already had many tragic experiences that found their way into some of her books many years later.
Back on Samos in 1945, Psarafti finished school before moving to Athens. After completing her studies in foreign languages in Athens, she worked first with the refugee branch of the World Council of Churches and then with the American Embassy. Her first novel for children, Me tin adnromeda stop galazio planiti (Andromeda in the Blue Planet; Athens: Estia), which was not published until 1980, was awarded a prize by the Greek Section of IBBY. Soon five more books followed in rapid succession: Oi angeloi tou ouranou (Angels in the sky; Athens: Astir, 1981), Sta vimata tou Samotheriou (In the steps of Samotherion; Athens: Kastaniotis, 1983), Anases kai psithyroi tou dasous (Breaths and whispers of the woods; Athens: Kedros, 1984), Ena kalokairi sti skia tou Budha (One summer in Buddha's shadow; Kedros, 1986), and To diplo taxidi (The double voyage; Athens: Patakis, 1987), which we will discuss below. All of them won national prizes, and one, To diplo taxidi, was also included in the 1988 Pier Paolo Vergerio Honor List of the 12th European Prize for Children's Literature, by the University of Padua, Italy.
In the 1990s Psarafti has written ten books and won four more awards, including a distinction from the Academy of Athens for To avgo tis ehidnas (The viper's egg; Patakis, 1990) and the 1996 State Prize for Children's Literature for her book To hamogelo...