THE GREEK CLUB OF CRIME WRITERS (ELSAL)

The Greek Club of Crime Writers (ELSAL) was founded in April 2010, by a group of 25 writers. Today it counts 48 members living all over Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Iraklio, Kavala, Komotini, Samos) and abroad (Cyprus, Turkey). The club's main objectives concern the study and the promotion of crime fiction, as well as the gathering and spreading of information on old and new publications. Also, it is related with international unions of crime fiction writers, such as IACW/AIEP.

In these years, ELSAL has organised a number of bigger and smaller events all over Greece and has put together four volumes of short stories written by its members. They were published by well known publishing firms and are the following:

- "Είσοδος Κινδύνου" (Emergency Entrance), Metaichmio Publications 2011,

- "Η επιστροφή του αστυνόμου Μπέκα" (The return of inspector Bekas), Kastaniotis Editions 2012, 

- "Ο τόπος πρόδωσε τον ένοχο" (The site revealed the murderer), Topos Books 2014, 

- Noir comic stories in collaboration with the comic magazine "Blue Comet", Polaris Editions 2017-2018, and

- Μάνη νουάρ (Mani noir), Dromon Editions 2022.

Many of its members write articles in newspapers, magazines as well as in a variety of sites and blogs on crime fiction. Also, they take part in radio and TV shows concerning crime fiction in Greece and elsewhere.

The club has also created the site www.elsal.gr, which is the first and, for the time being, the only of its kind in Greek. It posts news on current publications of crime novels in Greece and abroad usually thoroughly commented, it includes a number of studies on various topics concerning crime fiction, it contains a bibliography of greek novels from their early start, as well as information on crime novels that have been or are currently translated in Greek. One can also find a number of original short stories posted by the members of the club. 

The first president of ELSAL was Andreas Apostolidis (2010-2013), who was followed by Titina Danelli (2013-2015), Yannis Rangos (2015-2017), Sergios Gakas (2017-2019) Neoklis Galanopoulos (2019-2021) and Vassilis Danellis (2021-2023). Presently, Sergios Gakas fills the post again. Athena Kakouri is our honorary president.

 December 2023