1890-1978 / poet, writer
Marijani (Mariam Tqemaladze) appeared on the Georgian literary scene in 1916. In 1921 her first collection of poetry was published. Later, the Soviet literary establishment would ignore the boldly erotic nature of her poetry and christen her only as a children's author. Her early work is poorly studied.
Marijani began writing poetry and prose for children in 1926 and continued to do so fruitfully for several decades. Writing children's literature was in a sense a self-defence mechanism that allowed Marijani to adapt to the totalitarian system of the Soviet Union.
It was only in the 1960s that Marijani's first collection of works intended for adult readers was published. In it, she managed to subtly analyse the painful past. Apart from poems and children's literature, Marijani translated literature, chiefly from Russian.