Christos Tsiolkas

Tsiolkas was born and raised in Melbourne with his Greek immigrant parents,^[3] and was educated at Blackburn High School. Tsiolkas completed his Arts Degree at the University of Melbourne in 1987.^[2]

He co-edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1987.^[4]

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.^[5]

His fourth novel, The Slap, was published in 2008, and won several awards^[6][7] 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.^[8]

• 1999: AWGIE Award for Stage, for Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? (with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, and Melissa Reeves)^[9]
• 2006: The Age Fiction Book of the Year^[9]
• 2009: ABIA Book of the Year.^[8]
• 2009: ALS Gold Medal, for The Slap^[8]
• 2009: Commonwealth Writers Prize, overall winner for best book, for The Slap^[6]
• 2009: Nielsen BookData Booksellers' Choice Award, for The Slap^[7][8]
• 2009: Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, for The Slap^[10]
• 2020: Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, for Damascus (2019)^[11]
• 2021: Melbourne Prize for Literature^[12]

Tsiolkas is gay^[13][14] and identifies as a self-proclaimed "wog."^[15] He is a Richmond Football Club supporter^[16] and of Greek heritage.^[17]

• 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)

• 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)

• Thug (1998), short film, with Spiro Economopoulos)^[18][8]
• Saturn's Return (2001),^[a] a telemovie starring Joel Edgerton and Damian Walshe-Howling^[19]
• Little Tornadoes (2021), co-written with director Aaron Wilson^[20][21]

• The play Who's Afraid of the Working Class? (1999) was made into the film Blessed (2009), directed by Ana Kokkinos.^[22]
• 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.^[23]
• The Slap has been turned into both an Australian and U.S. television miniseries.^[8]
• Barracuda was adapted for television in 2016.^[24]