George Choundas
George Choundas
George Choundas is a lawyer and former FBI agent. He was awarded the New Millennium Award for fiction, as well as being named two times to the Pushcart Prize list.
He has published stories and essays in over fifty publications, including The Making Sense of Things (FC2) which won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. Additionally, he was shortlisted for both Katherine Anne Porter’s Prize in Short Fiction and Pleiades Press’ Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose.
Early Life and Education
George Choundas is an award-winning writer of fiction and essays whose work has appeared in over twenty-five publications, such as The Southern Review and Subtropics. His story collection The Making Sense of Things (FC2) won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for both Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction from University of North Texas Press and Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose from Pleiades Press.
George is a former FBI agent who is half Greek and half Cuban. He works as a lifeguard, corporate litigator, and cashier at his father’s sandwich shop. His essay collection Good Things Are Around Us and Good Things Are to Come was nominated for the EastOver Prize for Nonfiction 2022; he currently resides in Pleasantville, New York.
Professional Career
George Choundas is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has been published in over forty publications such as The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Subtropics. He is the recipient of the New Millennium award for fiction, an ex-FBI agent, and half Greek/half Cuban (his mother was raised in Cuba).
His story collection The Making Sense of Things won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize from FC2 and was shortlisted for several prestigious awards such as Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose, St. Lawrence Book Award for Fiction, and Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. Currently an Associate Director at PCAOB in New York City, his job allows him to wear sunglasses outside – though sometimes they can be difficult to locate!
Achievements and Honors
Former FBI agent George Choundas has achieved great success with his short story collection The Making Sense of Things, which earned him both the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and was named one of Publishers Weekly’s and The Wall Street Journal’s best books of 2013.
He is the author of The Pirate Primer, an insightful book that examines the difficulties facing first-generation American kids and their parents in the twenty-first century. Packed full of inspiring tales of hardship and triumph that will challenge readers’ preconceived notions about immigrant experience, The Pirate Primer deserves a place on any literature enthusiast’s shelf. Additionally, Choundas uses English language skillfully throughout the text which speaks volumes about how he integrated life in America with his Greek heritage.
Personal Life
George Choundas is a lawyer and former FBI agent from Pleasantville, New York. He is half Cuban and Greek by heritage, and currently resides there with his family.
He is a graduate of Emory University and has published over fifty short stories and nonfiction in journals such as Boulevard, Subtropics, Alaska Quarterly Review, The American Reader, and Harvard Review.
His debut collection, The Making Sense of Things, won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize from FC2 and was shortlisted for both Katherine Anne Porter Prize and Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose.
The stories in The Making Sense of Things resonate with memory, magic, and myth – all our favorite ways to attempt to make sense of the world. They are captivating, incredibly bold, and uniquely resistant to precedent.
Net Worth
George Choundas is a prizewinning writer whose works have been published in over forty-five publications, such as The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Subtropics and The Best Small Fictions 2015. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and an ex-FBI agent who now resides in Pleasantville, New York with his beloved Gruban sandwich: an inventive blend of feta, diced tomatoes and olive oil on hot pressed Cuban bread. An outspoken bruxist, George has appeared on only one national game show as well as earning awards such as Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and New Millennium Fiction Prize.