Γιάννης Ρίτσος

Yannis Ritsos was a Greek poet. Born 1 May 1909 in Monemvasia, Laconia, Greece - Died 11 November 1990 in Athens, Greece.

His poetry was banned at times in Greece for its left wing content. Ritsos was unsuccessfully proposed nine times for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In 1975, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Thessaloniki and was awarded the great French poetry prize "Alfred de Vigny". The following year he was awarded the "Lenin" peace prize in Moscow. In the following years he was awarded prizes at various foreign universities: Birmingham (1978), Karl Marx of Leipzig (1984) and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens (1987). In 1986 he was awarded the UN "Poet of International Peace" prize.

Uncle of Δέσποινα Γλέζου.