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. Every reader has genuine influence over the outcome. Scores are never published. Panel citations are. Individual scores remain confidential permanently.
THRILLER AWARDS
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.
T.M. LOGAN
T.M. Logan was a national newspaper journalist before turning to novel-writing full time. His books have sold more than three million copies in the UK and have been translated into 25 other languages for publication around the world.
His latest novel, THE WEEKEND, was published in the UK in 2026 and became his seventh Sunday Times bestseller. THE HOLIDAY was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and subsequently made into a four-part TV drama starring Jill Halfpenny. His novel THE CATCH was also adapted for TV, starring BAFTA winner Jason Watkins. His other books are LIES, 29 SECONDS, TRUST ME, THE CURFEW, THE MOTHER, THE DREAM HOME and THE DAUGHTER.
His new thriller, THE FAMILY, will be out in March 2027.
Tim lives in Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children. You can find him at www.tmlogan.com
Andrew F. Gulli
Jury Member, Thriller Awards
Andrew F. Gulli is the managing editor of The Strand Magazine, one of the world’s premier publications devoted to mystery, crime, and suspense fiction.
Since joining the magazine, he has overseen the publication of original work by many of the genre’s most celebrated authors, including Michael Connelly, Walter Mosley, R.L. Stine, Alexander McCall Smith, Jeffery Deaver, and C.J. Box, while also championing emerging writers from around the world.
Gulli has earned international recognition for uncovering and publishing previously unknown or long-forgotten works by major literary figures. His discoveries have included stories and essays by Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Tennessee Williams, James M. Cain, and Edith Wharton, among others. These literary rediscoveries have received widespread international attention, with coverage in The New York Times, NPR, the Associated Press, The Guardian, the BBC, and other major media outlets, helping introduce remarkable lost works to a new generation of readers.
In addition to his editorial work, Gulli has edited numerous acclaimed anthologies featuring many of the world’s leading crime and suspense writers. He has worked closely with literary estates, archives, libraries, universities, and agents to locate, authenticate, and publish significant manuscripts that had remained unseen for decades.
His work has established The Strand Magazine as a leading home for both outstanding contemporary fiction and important literary rediscoveries.
Raised in Athens, Gulli developed a lifelong passion for literature and storytelling that ultimately led him into publishing. His editorial philosophy is rooted in the belief that exceptional writing—whether by a legendary author or a debut writer—deserves to reach the widest possible audience.
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.
Reader Voice
Jury Member, Thriller Awards
One seat on the Homer Awards jury belongs to a reader. Each year, the Thriller Book Retreat community elects one of its own as the Reader Voice — not a critic, not an author, not an industry insider, but a devoted thriller reader who represents the thousands who nominate and vote. The Reader Voice reads and scores the longlists for all five thriller awards, carrying the community’s judgment into the room where the winners are decided. The inaugural Reader Voice will be elected in January 2027.
GREECE FICTION
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. She presents the Markos Synodinos Award last of all, speaking first about her father.
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
Lina Varotsi
Lina Varotsi was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. Between 2003 and 2020, she resided in the United Kingdom, working in the film industry and in Higher Education. She holds a degree in Journalism & Media, an MA in Visual Image Production and Direction, and a PhD in Creative Writing & Literary Criticism. Her monograph, Conceptualisation and Exposition: a Theory of Character Construction, is published internationally by Routledge, New York.
Her work has been presented at academic conferences, and since 2015 she has been teaching fiction and storytelling to children, teenagers and adults. She also works as an editor, content developer, and translator of academic papers and children’s and non-fiction books, both in the UK and Greece.
Her debut novel, Σήκω από Πάνω Μου, was shortlisted for the Best Debut Writer in Fiction by Αναγνώστης and the Public awards.
Wendy H. Jones
Wendy H. Jones is a multi-award-winning Scottish Author who writes crime thrillers, cozy mysteries, children’s picture books, and non-fiction books for writers. She is currently writing a series of fiction books based on the life of a real-life naval surgeon.
She has judged several international writing competitions and has presented at conferences worldwide. She loves traveling, writing, and reading and can often be found doing all three.
She is honored to be on the fiction jury for the awards.
Eleni Chelioti
Eleni Chelioti was born and raised in Greece but later moved to Ottawa, Canada, where she studied Translation and Italian at the University of Ottawa.
She completed her MA in English Literature and Modernism at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK, and her PhD in English Literature at the University of Birmingham, UK.
She has been teaching English language and literature for the last 22 years, and began
writing for the online and print edition of Athens Voice in 2017.
In December 2022, she published her first novel Σχεδόν Πάντα, Σχεδόν Κάτι with Athens Voice Books.
