2010 Literary Lunch Authors
Philologians is the literary ministry of The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George, Bethesda, Maryland.
On Saturday, February 20, 2010 Philogians hosted its first inaugural literary luncheon – In Their Own Words. The event took place at the Bethesda Country Club and featured four Greek-American authors, George Tenet, George Pelecanos, Stefan Fatsis, Nick Katsoris, who reflected on their craft and gave insights into their works. Master of Ceremonies responsibilities were offered by our parishoner and FOX News Correspondent, Mike Emanuel.
We attracted a diverse audience--not only from our Parish but from the area at large with 350 in attendance. The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George was established more than 45 years ago to minister to the spiritual needs of Orthodox and others in the greater Washington, DC region. The parish’s growth has been inspirational, with a membership close to 1,000 families. Although our cultural heritage is Hellenic, our community is diverse in ethnicity and religious backgrounds. With our parishioner's coming from several Maryland counties, the District and Northern Virginia.
George Tenet  | George Pelecanos IanAllen.jpg) |
George Tenet is the former Central Intelligence Agency director. Born in 1953, George is the son of Greek and Albanian immigrants. He grew up working in his family's diner and attended public school in Little Neck, Queens. He received his bachelor's degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and his master's from the School of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Before working for the CIA, George served as research director for the American Hellenic Institute and as legislative director to Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III. He served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1985-1993 before President Clinton appointed him senior director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council. Tenet served as deputy director of the CIA from 1995-1997 and as director from 1997-2004 – the only director in close to thirty years that spanned two presidencies. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2007, Tenet published his memoirs titled At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Practise of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. He is married to Stephanie Glakas-Tenet who is also a successful author. Stephanie’s father was a founding member of St. George. They have one son, John Michael. Nick Katsoris  | George Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C. in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992. George is the author of fourteen crime novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain, Hell to Pay, Soul Circus, Hard Revolution, Drama City, and The Night Gardener. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix Du Roman Noir in France. Hell to Pay and Soul Circus were awarded the 2003 and 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire and the collections Unusual Suspects, Best American Mystery Stories of 1997, Measures of Poison, Best American Mystery Stories of 2002, Men From Boys, Murder at the Foul Line, and D.C. Noir, for which he also served as editor. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Sight and Sound, Uncut, Mojo, and numerous other publications. Esquire magazine called Pelecanos "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world.”George served as producer on the feature films Caught (Robert M. Young, 1996), Whatever (Susan Skoog, 1998) and BlackMale (George and Mike Baluzy, 1999), and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's, Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. His novel Right as Rain is currently in development with director Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, Wonder Boys) and Warner Brothers. He is a writer on the upcoming World War II miniseries The Pacific, to be produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and HBO. George lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and three children. He is at work on his next novel. George is a lifelong Greek Orthodox, baptized in Washington, D.C., who played GOYA basketball and forged lifelong friendships in the church. Stefan Fatsis |
Nick Katsoris created the character of Loukoumi the Lamb in 2005. Since then he has published four books in the series : 1) Loukoumi 2) the iParenting Media Award winning Growing up with Loukoumi (named "One of the Best Products of 2007", and narrated on CD by Olympia Dukakis, Gloria Gaynor, American Idol's Constantine Maroulis, Guiding Light star Frank Dicopoulos and CBS News anchor Alexis Christoforous), 3) Loukoumi's Good Deeds -iParenting Media Award winner named "Outstanding Book of 2009" and narrated on CD by Jennifer Aniston and John Aniston), and its sequel 4) Loukoumi's Gift (release date: October 24th, National Make A Difference Day.) All proceeds from the books benefit children's charities including The Make A Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The books have also been translated into Greek by Livanis Publishing, and have launched a line of children's and baby products based on the character of Loukoumi. In 2008, Nick sponsored the now annual Growing up with Loukoumi Dream Day contest based on the book's theme that kids can be anything when they grow up if they believe in themselves. After 200 storytime events nationwide and thousands of entries, three kids were selected to live their Dream Days. One visited NASA to witness the Phoenix spacecraft land on Mars, another played soccer with the New York Red Bulls, and a third cooked on the air with CBS chef Tony Tantillo, plus got the chance to meet Rachael Ray. In October 2009, Nick also sponsored the first annual Make A Difference with Loukoumi Day as part of USA WEEKEND Magazine's Make A Difference Day. The Day follows the theme in Loukoumi's Good Deeds and the book will be read to hundreds of schools nationwide where over 10,000 children will be encouraged to do something on October 24th, National Make a Difference Day, that will make a difference in someone's life. Nick is a practicing attorney and General Counsel of the Red Apple Group in New York, H eis also President and Founder of the Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund, which has awarded over 500 scholarships. He lives in Eastchester, NY with his wife Voula, a real estate attorney, and their children Dean and Julia. |  Stefan Fatsis is a veteran reporter, a bestselling author of three books and a familiar voice to public-radio listeners. Stefan’s latest is A Few Seconds of Panic: A Sportswriter Plays in the NFL . Stefan became the first writer since George Plimpton in 1963 to be allowed inside an NFL training camp as a player. The Washington Post and Sports Illustrated included A Few Seconds of Panic on their lists of best books of 2008. Stefan’s previous book, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players , chronicled the twisted subculture of the quintessentially American board game and his own into it. Word Freak spent a dozen weeks on the New York Times extended bestseller list, and was a Times business bestseller and a Times Notable Book of 2001 and 2002. Word Freak spawned several documentaries and helped prompt the first-ever television coverage of tournament Scrabble. His first book, Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America’s Heartland followed a troupe of antiestablishment baseball entrepreneurs and their nose-thumbing creation, the Northern League. A few people bought it, and he’s grateful to every one. Since 1998, Stefan has been a regular guest on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” where he talks about “sports and the business of sports” as well as a guest columnist in top newspapers, magazines, and podcasts. For more than a decade, Stefan covered sports for The Wall Street Journal and before that spent eight years reporting for The Associated Press, A native of Pelham, N.Y. Stefan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, “All Things Considered” cohost Melissa Block, and their daughter, Chloe.
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