Pipina D. Elles was born in the city of Ioannina, Greece. She was educated in the same city and her studies in Classics and Philosophy at the University of Ioannina are equivelant to the Australian B.A. She married in Athens and, in 1968, Elles migrated to Australia, settling in Sydney where she has raised four sons. In Australia she studied Modern Greek Literature at the University of New England beginning in 1994 and gaining her B.A. in 1997. In the same year she enrolled at the University of Sydney and continued her studies in Modern Greek Literature, earning her M.A. In 1998 she enrolled for a Master of Philosophy degree and before the year was over, she became a Ph.D. candidate. In 2002 she completed her thesis on Kazantzakis but due to a dispute she decided to withdraw (January, 2004) from the Modern Greek Department of the University of Sydney before the commencement of corrections to her thesis. Subsequently, she received a proposal from another University to proceed with the correcting of her thesis and hopes to be able to meet the requirements for her Ph.D during 2012.
Elles is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, drama, short stories and children's literature, mostly in Greek but some also in English. Besides her literary works, she has also been a keen painter since 1970. She has participated in many exhibitions and has donated some of her works to educational institutes to help raise money. She has produced a large number of paintings of different media, as well as a number of portraits. Her portraits include George Paxinos, the well known psychologist at UNSW, and Irina Dunn, Executive Director of the NSW Writers' Centre from 1992 to 2008. Elles participated in the Archibald and Dobell awards in 1997 and 1999.
