In 1964 she and her family returned to Greece, but they all left again when the junta seized power in 1967.

During her early years at junior high school she started writing plays for puppet theatre.

Wildcat Under Glass), (1963) was inspired by her childhood spent in Samos and is semi-autobiographical.

Tina's Web) won the Greek IBBY prize for the best book for older children, and Alki Zei was nominated as a candidate for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature.

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award was granted for the translation to English and publishing in the United States of Wildcat Under Glass (1970), Petros' War (1974), and The Sound of the Dragon's Feet (1980).