The awards are powered by readers
The Homer Awards are nominated, voted on, and shaped by two reading communities with over 5,300 members between them.
How it works
Every Homer Award longlist is built by readers, not committees.
Community members nominate the books they love.
Community members vote to build the longlist. The panel then reads the longlist and picks the winner.
No book reaches the panel without first earning the trust of real readers. That is the structural principle behind every Homer Award.
Thriller Book Retreat 3,500 members · Facebook group
The home of the Homer Awards thriller and indie thriller nominations. Members nominate indie thrillers, vote to build the longlist, and elect the annual Reader Voice juror, who wins a complimentary stay at Imagine Greece Retreats before the gala ceremony in Tolo.
Thriller Book Retreat is also where the three Penelope Award finalist manuscripts are published for members to read before the winner is announced.
Solo Travel To Greece 1,800 members · Facebook group
The home of the Homer Awards Greece fiction nominations. Members nominate comedy, romance, literary, and historical fiction set in Greece — the books that made them fall in love with the country, book a flight, or see Greece differently.
Solo Travel To Greece members vote alongside Thriller Book Retreat to build the Greece Fiction longlists for the Aristofanis, Aphrodite, and Herodotus awards.
Member benefits
As the Homer Awards grow, so will the benefits of community membership. Early longlist access, reading groups, author events, and more. Join now to be part of the inaugural Homer Awards from the very beginning.
Win a trip to Greece
Become the Homer Awards Reader Voice juror, and your seat at the gala is on us.
Every year, the Thriller Book Retreat community elects one reader to sit on the Homer Awards jury as the Reader Voice — the community’s representative inside the award. The winner receives a complimentary stay at Imagine Greece Retreats in Tolo, Argolida, and serves on the jury for the Homer Awards gala ceremony on October 22, 2027. Flights and travel insurance are not included.
You will read the longlists for all five thriller awards — the Odyssey, Circe, Athena, and Hermes. You will score each title against four criteria. Your scores will directly influence who wins.
The election date will be announced shortly in Thriller Book Retreat. Join now to make sure you qualify when the window opens.
What the winner receives
A complimentary stay at the John & George Hotel, Tolo, Argolida, Greece
Named on the Homer Awards jury as Reader Voice
Attendance at the Homer Awards gala ceremony, October 22, 2027
A seat at the table for the first Homer Awards in history
Make sure you qualify
· Member of Thriller Book Retreat
· Public Goodreads profile with a minimum of 20+ written thriller reviews AND an active reading-content platform
· Subscribed to the Imagine Press newsletter at imaginepress.org
· Not a published author or industry professional
· Available to read the thriller longlists between the longlist announcement and the final scoring deadline (spring or summer 2027).
Stand for election
The candidacy window opens September 1 and closes December 31, 2026.
Submit your candidacy using the Reader Voice form and tell the community why you want the role.
We confirm each candidate meets the qualifications, then publish the full candidate list in Thriller Book Retreat.
Voting opens in January 2027.
Get voted in
The Thriller Book Retreat community votes for their favorite candidate over two weeks.
The member with the most votes becomes the Reader Voice juror for the inaugural Homer Awards.
Results announced in the group.
Confidentiality agreement signed privately before reading begins.
Homer Awards — Reader Voice Candidacy
Want to be the readers’ voice on the Homer Awards jury? One Thriller Book Retreat member is elected each year to sit on the jury — and the winner receives a complimentary stay in Tolo, Greece, for the gala.
Candidacy is open September 1 – December 31, 2026. We confirm each candidate meets the qualifications, then publish the candidate list in Thriller Book Retreat for the community vote in January 2027.