The Homer Awards

Today I would like to present the Homer Awards, celebrating thriller writers, indie authors, and everyone writing about Greece who deserved recognition and never got it.

The idea for the awards started with the Imagine Greece retreats. Rania Stone and Jonas Saul, who founded and run these, bring readers, writers, and wellness seekers to Greece — for experiences built around real authors and real places. They invited internationally bestselling, famous authors over to Greece, and eventually they noticed how much love there was for Greece from foreign authors—so many writers were actually setting their novels there. They realised many Greeks had no idea about that, and this incredible literary connection wasn’t being acknowledged or celebrated.

There will be nine awards for books set in Greece, mostly for thrillers, since both co-founders are authors of thrillers, but also for comedy, historical fiction and romance, as well as an award for the best unpublished manuscript.

The Odyssey Award, named for the greatest journey in literature, is for the Best Thriller of the Year. The book that kept you turning pages all the way home.

The Circe Award is for the best psychological thriller.

The Athena Award is for the best debut thriller.

The Hermes Award is for the best Indie thriller.

The Aristophanes Award is for the best Comedy.

The Herodotus Award is for the best Historical Fiction.

The Aphrodite Award is for the best Romance.

The Penelope Award is for the best unpublished thriller

And finally, for Literary Service to Greece, the Markos Synodinos Award. He was the beloved father of Rania Stone, who has always wanted to honour him, and will choose the recipient herself. The category is wide because Markos Synodinos was wide. Any writer — published or not, thriller or literary, Greek or international — whose work demonstrates that quality is eligible.

Markos Synodinos was born in 1933 on Amorgos. Poet, writer, and man of letters. Honored by the Society of Greek Writers and the Panhellenic Union of Writers, he passed away in March 2021 at the age of 88. He was a writer whose work demonstrates a profound, earned engagement with Greece.

You can find out much more about the awards here: Homer Awards

You can also join BOOKfest Greece for six days of reading, conversation, and Greece — followed by the night of the Homer Awards gala ceremony. As the brochure says: BOOKfest Greece is not a conference. It is not a workshop. It is a week spent in one of the most beautiful corners of the Peloponnese, reading alongside published authors, walking through ancient theatres and Bronze Age tombs, exploring the islands, and ending with the most memorable evening in the literary calendar. The awards mean more when you have spent the week with the people who wrote the books.

Finally, some of you might be interested in the retreats themselves for a future trip to the magical country that is Greece. They do sound very tempting.

Literary & Wellness Retreats — Imagine Greece Retreats