Christos Tsiolkas

Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author, playwright, and screenwriter.^[1] He is especially known for The Slap, which was both well-received critically and highly successful commercially. Several of his books have been adapted for film and television.

Christos Tsiolkas
Born	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Education	University of Melbourne
Occupation(s)	Author, playwright, screenwriter

Early life

Tsiolkas was born and raised in Melbourne with his Greek immigrant parents,^[2] and was educated at Blackburn High School. Tsiolkas completed his Arts Degree at the University of Melbourne in 1987.^[1]

He co-edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1987.^[3]

Career

Tsiolkas' first novel, Loaded (1995), about an alienated gay youth in Melbourne, was adapted as the feature film Head On (1998) by director Ana Kokkinos, starring Alex Dimitriades.^[4]

His fourth novel, The Slap, was published in 2008, and won several awards^[5][6] as well as being longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. It was also highly successful commercially; it was the fourth-highest selling book by an Australian author in 2009.^[7]

Awards

• 1999: AWGIE Award for Stage, for Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? (with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, and Melissa Reeves)^[8]
• 2006: The Age Fiction Book of the Year^[8]
• 2009: ABIA Book of the Year.^[7]
• 2009: ALS Gold Medal, for The Slap^[7]
• 2009: Commonwealth Writers Prize, overall winner for best book, for The Slap^[5]
• 2009: Nielsen BookData Booksellers' Choice Award, for The Slap^[6][7]
• 2009: Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, for The Slap^[9]
• 2020: Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, for Damascus (2019)^[10]
• 2021: Melbourne Prize for Literature^[11]

Personal life

Tsiolkas is a Richmond Football Club supporter^[12] and of Greek heritage.^[13]

Books

• Loaded (1995)
• Jump Cuts (with Sasha Soldatow, 1996)
• The Jesus Man (1999)
• The Devil's Playground (2002)
• Dead Europe (2005)
• The Slap (2008)
• Barracuda (2013)
• Merciless Gods (2014)
• Damascus (2019)
• 7 1/2 (2021)
• The In-Between (2023)

Theatre

• Who's Afraid of the Working Class? (with Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves and Patricia Cornelius, 1999)
• Elektra AD (1999)
• Viewing Blue Poles (2000)
• Fever (with Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves and Patricia Cornelius, 2002)
• Dead Caucasians (2002)
• Non Parlo di Salo (with Spiro Economopoulos, 2005)
• The Hit (with Netta Yashin 2006)
• The Audition (with Melissa Reeves, Milad Norouzi, Patricia Cornelius, Sahra Davoudi, Tes Lyssiotis and Wahibe Moussa, produced by Outer Urban Projects, 2019 and 2024)
• Loaded (adapted from the book, with Dan Giovannoni, 2023)

Screenplays

• Thug (1998), short film, with Spiro Economopoulos)^[14][7]
• Saturn's Return (2001),^[a] a telemovie starring Joel Edgerton and Damian Walshe-Howling^[15]
• Little Tornadoes (2021), co-written with director Aaron Wilson^[16][17]

Film and TV adaptations

• The play Who's Afraid of the Working Class? (1999) was made into the film Blessed (2009), directed by Ana Kokkinos.^[18]
• Loaded was first published in 1995 and was adapted into the 1998 film Head On, starring Alex Dimitriades.

• The 2006 novel Dead Europe was made into the film Dead Europe (2012), directed by Tony Krawitz and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee.^[19]
• The Slap has been turned into both an Australian and U.S. television miniseries.^[7]
• Barracuda was adapted for television in 2016.^[20]

Footnotes

1. Not to be confused with other plays and films of the same name

References

1. "Austlit — Christos Tsiolkas". Austlit. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
2. Tsiolkas, Christos (9 July 2010). "Christos Tsiolkas: My Greek grandma". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
3. ""Christos Tsiolkas is one Australia's most celebrated authors, but he nearly left the country for good"". ABC News. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
4. Head On at the National Film and Sound Archive colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
5. "2009 Overall Winners". Commonwealth Foundation. 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
6. "The Slap' wins booksellers' choice award". Boomerang Books. 2009. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
7. "Christos Tsiolkas: The Utopian Vision By Jessica Gildersleeve". Cambria Press Official Website. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
8. "Chris Tsiolkas". Smart Artists. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
9. "Winners & Shortlist: 2009 Premier's Literary Awards". State Library of Victoria. Archived from the original on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
10. "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2020". The Wheeler Centre. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
11. Burke, Kelly (10 November 2021). "Christos Tsiolkas wins $60,000 Melbourne prize for literature". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
12. 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival Archived 13 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine www.adelaidefestival.com.au. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
13. Watts, Richard (3 July 2005), "A fortunate son", The Age, retrieved 19 August 2007
14. Christos Tsiolkas: the utopian vision. Cambria Press. 8 January 2018. ISBN 9781604979787. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
15. Saturn's Return at IMDb
16. "Aaron Wilson: Chasing Little Tornadoes". FilmInk. 30 April 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
17. "Little Tornadoes trailer and release date sweeps in". Cinema Australia. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
18. "Who's Afraid of the Working Class now Blessed film". BigPond Movies. Archived from the original on 15 September 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
19. Rigg, Julie (15 November 2012). "Dead Europe". ABC Radio National. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
20. Neutze, Ben (5 July 2016). "Barracuda review (ABC TV): Christos Tsiolkas pulls sport and contemporary Australia into sharp focus". Daily Review. Retrieved 27 May 2022.

External links

• Official website

External videos
One Plus One: Christos Tsiolkas, One Plus One, ABC News