Pavlos Nirvanas

The literary pseudonym Pavlos Nirvanas is known to the writer Petros K. Apostolidis. His father, merchant Konstantinos Apostolou Koumiotis, was from Skopelos and his mother, Marietta Ioannou Ralli, from Chios. He was born in Mariupol, Russian Empire in 1866 and died in Athens on November 28, 1937.

Pavlos Nirvanas published many poetry collections and published many vignettes in newspapers. He maintained close ties with several writers of his time and contributed to the emergence of younger writers, e.g. Ioannis Kondylakis, Grigorios Xenopoulos, Nikos Kavvadias. He was connected by a brotherly friendship with Alexandros Papadiamantis.

Literarily, he is placed in the circle of Kostis Palamas. He is influenced by aestheticism and symbolism, as well as by the philosopher Nietzsche. His prose is governed by ethnographic and psychographic elements, while linguistically he began in Katharevousa and ended in the vernacular. Tellos Agras wrote that "his moral writing is tragic and deviates towards lively lyricism, when it does not turn towards real sarcasm", while Kostas Ouranis stated that "even his humor is used to provoke a smile and not to causticize.

He was a friend of the Lefkadite painter Apostolos Chamosfakidis, to whom he gave the characteristic artistic pseudonym "Lefkadios".

In 1923, he was awarded the Order of Merit for Literature and Arts for his literary work, while in 1928 he became a member of the Academy of Athens. He died of bronchopneumonia in Marousi in 1937.