The Sophocles Award
Named for Sophocles, author of Oedipus and Antigone, the writer who understood that the greatest stories are the ones that cost something to tell and something to read. Sophocles did not write to entertain. He wrote to break something open — in the story and in the reader. The Sophocles Award exists for the writers who still do that.
The Sophocles Award is presented annually to the best literary or dramatic fiction set in Greece.
Greece has always been the setting for the most serious human questions — fate, justice, identity, belonging, and the price of loyalty. The Sophocles Award celebrates the writers who are still asking them.
Presented at the Homer Awards gala ceremony, John & George Hotel, Tolo, Argolida, October 22, 2027.
Scoring criteria
· Narrative tension: Does it compel you to keep reading?
· Originality: Does it do something the genre hasn’t seen before?
· Character: Do you believe in the people on the page?
· Reader impact: Will you think about this book a month from now?
Eligibility
Publication
Must be published in English between
October 1, 2025, and October 1, 2026.
Setting requirement
This award covers literary fiction, contemporary drama, stories of modern Greece, and stories of the Greek diaspora. Greece must be a meaningful presence in the story, not merely a backdrop.
How to enter
Publishers submit directly. Community members may also nominate indie authors using a verified Amazon review of at least 50 words.
How it works
Publisher route
- Submit your title.
Publishers submit directly between October 1 and December 31, 2026. Submission fee applies. - Eligibility check.
Our team checks all submissions and nominations against eligibility rules. The book must be published in English between October 1, 2025, and October 1, 2026, and meaningfully set in Greece. Books failing eligibility are removed. Publisher fees are refunded. - Community votes for the longlist.
Thriller Book Retreat and Solo Travel to Greece members vote on all eligible titles. The 10 titles with the most votes become the longlist. Publishers of longlisted titles are formally notified by Imagine Press. - Panel reads and scores. The Greece Fiction sub-panel reads the longlist and scores each title across four criteria — Authenticity of Greece, Originality, Character, and Reader Impact — each scored from 1 to 5, for a total of 20. Rania Stone holds the casting vote. Results sealed immediately. Individual scores are never published.
- Winner announced at the gala
The Sophocles Award is presented live at the Homer Awards gala ceremony, John & George Hotel, Tolo, Argolida, October 22, 2027.
Community route
- Submit your title.
Community members nominate by posting a verified Amazon review of at least 50 words and submitting the nomination form. - Eligibility check.
Our team checks all submissions and nominations against eligibility rules. The book must be published in English between October 1, 2025, and October 1, 2026, and meaningfully set in Greece. Books failing eligibility are removed. - Community votes for the longlist.
Thriller Book Retreat and Solo Travel to Greece members vote on all eligible titles. The 10 titles with the most votes become the longlist. Longlisted indie authors are contacted personally — many will not know they were nominated. - Panel reads and scores.
The Greece Fiction sub-panel reads the longlist and scores each title across four criteria — Authenticity of Greece, Originality, Character, and Reader Impact — each scored from 1 to 5, for a total of 20. Rania Stone holds the casting vote. Results sealed immediately. Individual scores are never published. - Winner announced at the gala
The Sophocles Award is presented live at the Homer Awards gala ceremony at the John & George Hotel, Tolo, Argolida, on October 22, 2027.
Key dates
Submissions open October 1, 2026
Submissions close December 31, 2026
Longlist announced February 15, 2027
Shortlist announced
May 1, 2027
Gala ceremony October 22, 2027
A note for Greek publishers
The Homer Awards welcome submissions from Greek publishing houses. If your catalog includes English-language titles — or Greek works translated into English — published between October 1, 2025, and October 1, 2026, we encourage you to submit.
For questions in Greek, write to us at info@homerawards.com, and we will respond accordingly.
Submit as publisher
Nominate a book
About Sophocles
Sophocles was born in Colonus, near Athens, around 497 BC. He wrote more than 120 plays — seven survive complete. He won more first prizes at the Athenian dramatic festivals than any other playwright of his era.
Oedipus Rex is considered by many scholars to be the greatest drama ever written. Aristotle used it in the Poetics as the model of what a tragedy should be.
Antigone gave us one of literature’s most enduring questions: when the law of the state and the law of conscience conflict, which do you follow? Antigone chose conscience. It cost her everything.
The artwork
Nikiforos Lytras (1832–1904) Antigone in Front of the Dead Polynices 1865 · Oil on canvas · 109 × 157 cm National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens · Public domain
The Homer Awards use public-domain classical paintings from the Greek tradition to represent each award. This painting — by one of Greece’s greatest 19th-century painters — depicts the moment from Sophocles’ Antigone that the Sofocles Award is named for.
Join the community
The Sophocles Award is nominated by two communities — Solo Travel to Greece and Thriller Book Retreat. Join either community to nominate your favorite comedy set in Greece.