Judith Kazantzis (1940-2018) grew up in East Sussex and studied Modern History at Oxford. Inspired by the Women’s Movement, she made her life in the arts and radical politics, In the nineties she worked with UK migrant domestic workers and from 2000 until her death, she campaigned for Palestine. Also a painter and reviewer, over the course of a highly productive life, she published 11 volumes of poetry, including her Selected Poems 1977- 1992 (1995).

The Odysseus Poems are the subtle culmination of a long interest. Here, Kazantzis’s search for the woman’s face and the human face behind the politics of power has found a consistent metaphor in the shadows of the ancient world.

In 2006 Judith Kazantzis received the Cholmondeley Award for poetic achievement. With her American partner, the late novelist Irving Weinman, she lived in Lewes for many years. Her obituaries appeared in The Times, The Guardian and The Independent, among other publications.