Polychronis Koutsakis

Polychronis Koutsakis was born in Chania in 1974. He studied Electrical Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Patras. In 1998, his novel "The Burning of the Flag" (Modern Times Publications) was released. His play "When He Was Happy" was awarded the Second State Prize for Playwriting in 2005 by the Ministry of Culture. In 2007, he received the First State Prize for Playwriting. His other plays have been performed and awarded in New York and other U.S. cities, as well as in England and Greece. His play "Without You" was staged at the Amore Theater in Athens in May 2008 and by the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Crete in the spring of 2015. Alongside his "adult" novels, he also writes crime fiction for teenagers (and those who feel young at heart). His latest novel, "You Are Not Here" (Patakis Publications 2016), is the third book in the "Crete Trilogy," which began with the novel "Time for Heroes" (Patakis Publications 2013) and continued with "Just One Breath" (Patakis Publications 2015). "Just One Breath" was honored with the 2016 Teen Literature Book Award by the magazine "O Anagnostis." "Athenian Blues" is published simultaneously in Greece, England, Australia, and the USA. Another book in the same crime series, featuring protagonist Stratos Gazis, titled "Baby Blue," is already available from Patakis Publications and will be published abroad in 2018. He has worked as a professor of Communication Networks at McMaster University in Canada, the Technical University of Crete, and Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, where he has resided since 2016. His website is http://polkoutsakis.com