THE HOMER AWARDS: A New Literary Prize Born in GREECE

31st July 2026

Homer Awards: A New Literary Prize Born in Greece

There’s a particular kind of book that never quite gets its due — the thriller that keeps you up too late, and the novel so steeped in a sense of place that you can smell the sea air off the page. Homer Awards was created for exactly those books.

Founded by thriller authors Rania Stone (Συνοδινού) and Jonas Saul — together the authors of more than 60 published novels — Homer Awards celebrates two kinds of writing that don’t always get serious recognition: the modern thriller, and English-language fiction set in Greece. The awards are held in connection with BOOKfest, and culminate each year in a ceremony in Nafplio and Tolo, on Greece’s Peloponnese coast.

Nine Awards, One Country Where It All Began

Thriller Awards — Publisher-submitted, community-longlisted, panel-decided: the Odyssey Award (Best Thriller of the Year), the Circe Award (Best Psychological Thriller), and the Athena Award (Best Debut Thriller).

Indie Thriller Awards — The Hermes Award (Best Indie Thriller of the Year), open to reader nomination, for the author who got there without the machinery of a major publisher.

Greece Fiction Awards — Three awards for English-language fiction set in Greece, split by genre: the Aristophanes Award (Best Comedy Set in Greece), the Herodotus Award (Best Historical Fiction Set in Greece), and the Aphrodite Award (Best Romance Set in Greece). Like Hermes, these are open to both publisher submission and free reader nomination — readers can put forward indie titles with a verified Amazon review.

Penelope Award — Best Unpublished Thriller Manuscript. The prize is a full publishing deal with Imagine Press: professional editing, cover design, formatting, and global distribution.

Markos Synodinos Award — For literary service to Greece. This one isn’t submitted for or voted on. It’s given, and presented last of all — named for Rania’s late father, a Greek author whose own work shaped the award in his memory.

Who Can Enter

Any writer working in the thriller genre, in any setting, can submit to the Thriller Awards. For the Greece Fiction Awards, the requirement is simple: English-language fiction, set in Greece or carrying a strong Greek theme. Publishers submit directly; independent authors can be nominated by readers, free of charge.

Key Dates

• September 1, 2026 — Submissions and nominations open
• December 31, 2026 — Submission window closes
• January 1, 2027 — Longlist announced, community reader voting opens
• May 1, 2027 — Shortlist announced
• October 22, 2027 — Winners announced at the Homer Awards ceremony, Nafplio & Tolo

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SUBMISSIONS FOR THE HOMER AWARDS

A Ceremony With Its Feet in the Sand

The Homer Awards ceremony isn’t a hotel ballroom event. It concludes a full reading retreat in Nafplio and Tolo, with guest authors, on Greece’s Peloponnese coast — where jurors, shortlisted authors, and readers gather in person before the winners are announced. For details on the retreat, click on the image below:

All the details you will need are on THIS LINK

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