Stratis Myrivilis, a contemporary of poets Seferis and Elytis, was a leading voice in the new Greek prose of the 1930s.

Stratis Myrivilis (pseudonym for Efstràtios Stamatópulos, Mitilene 1890 – Athens 1969) focused in his early writing on the realism of the Greek folk tradition, employing everyday language and objective description. He went on to apply what he had learned from that tradition to contemporary life, in powerful narrative prose that told things as they were. He published two further novels: The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes and The Mermaid Madonna, as well as a narrative piece entitled Vasilis Arvanitis and several short story collections.