Melisanthi Greco is a writer of Greek and Serbian descent, born on Rhodes Island, Greece. Raised between beach waves and forests of the Aegean island, she comes from a cosmopolitan, multilingual family of scholars and artists, and she quickly earned herself the moniker 'the Queen of Useless Information,' always filled with purpose to find every bit of such information its true home.

Hailing from both the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula, she displays a strong temperament and a heart-on-your-sleeve mindset, both in real life and in writing. Growing up in the prolific Old Town of Rhodes, she grew up playing in archaeological ruins and the Magister's Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that would set her imagination ablaze. Though primarily a prose writer, she has dabbled in educational and sociocultural articles in English, Greek, and Serbian.

From a young age, she sought the company of books and writing, drawn by historical narratives and creative non-fiction, first encouraged to delve into writing by her teachers and mentors in young adolescence. She has studied ancient Greek and fluently speaks the purist, classical 'Katharevousa' Greek language even today. A zealous student of literature, history and language, she has had the pleasure of being taught by brilliant minds from different countries, setting her off onto a path of lingual versatility and exploration.

She spent 7 years in Belgrade, Serbia, where she perfected her literary and scholarly Serbian language skills, studying language, culture, and literature at the University of Belgrade and working as a foreign language instructor, as well as a translator. She then went on to live for over two years in Tokyo, Japan, where she was first encouraged to publish her academic work. There, she slowly immersed herself in both life and study at Waseda University, with the occasional venture into surrounding countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, the Maldives, and others.

Traveling had always been a big part of her life, and her studies supported this endeavour. Through such travels, a lot of immersive experiences, cultural and linguistic exchanges, and tales were gathered—only to be showcased on this platform, among others. It takes many brilliant strangers, miles across the world, and a little bit of bravery to write something that could make the world a more interesting place; it's only a matter of how much we want to reach out and touch others.

Academia & Career With a specialization in philology and master's degrees in translation and international communication from the University of Belgrade and Waseda University, respectively, she has devoted her life and research to the art of communication and all it carries within itself. She has an extensive background in the humanities field; she has a BA in the Faculty of Philology, and her first MA was on the topic of Translatology—Cultural Context in Comparative Literary Translation in Japanese, English, and Greek, through the work of renowned and controversial author Yukio Mishima. A writer known for his uniquely painted images, represented in English and Greek through vastly different perspectives and translators, was explored through this comparative study in an effort to delve into how much of cultural context is lost in translation, therefore projecting a different image abroad than the one the author may have intended.

This in turn nurtured an interest in a deeper understanding of the impact of translation and communication, leading to Waseda’s Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies master’s program. There, she researched and wrote about the Preservation of Traditional Writing: A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and Serbian Languages in the Age of Globalization. This research, done through showcasing socio-political discourse regarding scripts and their usage, as well as the real-life effects on ever-changing language and communication, deepened her understanding, as well as the belief that cultural context in translation, and language as a whole, is of vital essence in the grand scheme of things—particularly in the era where human and artificial intelligence meet and overlap so closely.

During the duration of both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, she familiarized herself with translation and teaching techniques and had the opportunity of expanding her horizons through courses that involved techniques of rhetoric, cultural mediation, media literacy, ethics philosophy, translation practices, structure of language, cultural critical theories, and many others. An important factor kept in mind at all times was learning how to channel all that information in a multidisciplinary way that can be of service to different cultures in communicating and collaborating in a way that can “translate” well to both the Eastern and Western public. Another thing was how to show and teach others about the interwoven layers language and culture are, pieced together through the trial of history and time, and their importance.

She has worked in foreign language education, diplomacy, and translation/interpretation for almost a decade, with many of her encounters and experiences finding their way into her writing. Cultural and linguistic exchange has always been a big source of inspiration, as well as motivation to pursue new topics, broaden horizons, and share knowledge. She's a lover of the arts—with a primary outlet in writing, both academic and creative. When she isn't archiving drafts upon literary and academic drafts, she enjoys reading and discourse, an active lifestyle, baking, and nature.

You can find some of her work in literary magazines like EchoReview or academic journals.