Pol Koutsakis

Summary

Pol is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter living in Perth. He has won twice the National Award for Playwriting in Greece (2005, 2007) and once the National Award for Young Adult Literature (2016).
His crime novels Athenian Blues and Baby Blue featuring the ethical hitman Stratos Gazis are published in the UK, USA and Australia by Bitter Lemon Press. Baby Blue received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which compared Pol favourably to James Elroy and drew parallels between Pol’s work and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels.
His full-length and one-act plays have been produced and won awards in the USA, UK and Greece.

Biography

Pol Koutsakis is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. He was born in 1974 in Chania, Crete, Greece and currently lives in Perth. He has won twice the National Award for Playwriting in Greece (2005, 2007) and once the National Award for Young Adult Literature (2016).
Athenian Blues and Baby Blue, the first of his adult crime novels to be published in English, are now published in the UK, USA and Australia by Bitter Lemon Press (in 2017 and 2018). The main character is Stratos Gazis, an ethical hitman who charges very high fees and only kills those he believes deserve to be killed. Baby Blue received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which compared Pol favourably to James Elroy and drew parallels between Pol’s work and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels.
His full-length and one-act plays have been produced and won awards in the USA, UK and Greece.
He is a Senior Lecturer in the Information Technology, Mathematics and Statistics discipline at Murdoch University.

Relevant qualifications

Writing WA - Review of Athenian Blues: https://www.writingwa.org/for-readers/book-reviews/athenian-blues/

WritingWA - Athenian Blues named "Book of the month" for December 2018: https://www.writingwa.org/for-readers/book-club/athenian-blues-pol-koutsakis-bitter-lemon-press/

Publishers Weekly, USA - Starred Review for Baby Blue: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-908524-91-1

Other reviews for Baby Blue: https://www.bitterlemonpress.com/blogs/press-reviews/reviews-baby-blue

Other Reviews for Athenian Blues: https://www.bitterlemonpress.com/blogs/press-reviews/tagged/athenian-blues

Greece - National Award for Playwriting (2005)
Greece - National Award for Playwriting (2007)
Greece- National Award for Young Adult Literature (2016)

PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering