The people behind the decision
Every Homer Award follows the same structural principle. The community nominates and votes to build the longlist. The panel reads the longlist and picks the winner. No single juror reads more than they need to. Every reader has genuine influence over the outcome. Scores are never published. Panel citations are. Individual scores remain confidential permanently.
Jonas Saul
Jonas chairs the Homer Awards jury but does not score. His role is to manage the panel, hold the casting vote in a deadlock, write every public-facing panel citation, and present the Thriller and Indie Thriller winners at the gala.
He selects the Penelope Award winner alone — because a publishing deal is a professional judgment, not a democratic decision. At the gala, Jonas reads the winning manuscript page before naming the author.
Rania Stone
She has written eight novels and twelve children’s books, including thrillers that blend suspense with rich atmospheric settings.
She is a jury member at Finestra Film Festival, Portugal, and Brazil — one of the few international festivals bridging Mediterranean and South American storytelling.
Rania holds the casting vote for the Greece Fiction awards and presents all four Greece Fiction winners at the gala. She presents the Markos Synodinos Award last of all, speaking first about her father.
Ashley Marie Coffey
Jury Member, Thriller Awards
She also serves as an administrator for the Psychological Thriller Readers Group, the largest reading-related group on Facebook.
Ashley is honored to represent global mystery and thriller readers on the jury.
Maria Karamitsos
Maria A. Karamitsos is a journalist, author, poet, & PR pro. She’s the founder & former publisher/editor of WindyCity Greek magazine and former associate editor & senior writer for The Greek Star newspaper.
Maria also contributes to Greek City Times and TripFiction. Her work has been published in The Magic of Us-A Moms Who Write Poetry Anthology, The Pen Poetry Magazine, Voices of Hellenism Literary Journal, Highland Park Poetry, Recipes & Roots, GreekCircle magazine, The National Herald, GreekReporter, Harlots Sauce Radio, Women.Who.Write, KPHTH magazine, and more. Maria has contributed to two books: Greektown Chicago: Its History, Its Recipes, and The Chicago Area Ethnic Handbook.
She’s currently editing her 1st novel.
mariakaramitsos.com
