AustLit

Angelo Loukakis attended Fort Street High School, Sydney and in 1975 gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of New South Wales and, in 1976, a Diploma of Education from Sydney Teachers College. He has worked as a teacher of English as a second language, as a multicultural education project officer, as a welfare officer and as a freelance journalist for various newspapers including the Sydney Morning Herald and The National Times. From 2006 to 2009, he taught writing, editing, and publishing subjects at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). In 2010, he was awarded a Doctorate in Creative Arts from UTS.

In 1980 his film, Dancing, was awarded a prize for production at the Melbourne Film Festival. He also wrote a screenplay for another of his stories, Doherty. He was writer-in-residence for the Toe Truck Theatre Company of Sydney for four months specialising in theatre in education.

Loukakis is the author of three novels, Messenger, The Memory of Tides, and Houdini's Flight; two collections of short stories, For the Patriarch and Vernacular Dreams; and the non-fiction works The Greeks (on the Greek community in Australia), Who Do You Think You Are? (the book of the television series, Australian edition); Norfolk: An Island and its People (a travel book); and Making a Difference (the memoirs of Qld Premier Peter Beattie, as ghost-written).

Loukakis has been a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council (1985-87), the Commonwealth Government’s Book Industry Strategy Group (2010-11), and the Book Industry Collaborative Council (2012-13); founding Chair of the NSW Writers' Centre (1991); and Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors (2010–16). In 2018, he was serving as a director of Varuna, the Writers’ House, located in Katoomba, NSW.

Sources: additional information courtesy of the author.