Dimosthenis Kourtovik (Greek: Δημοσθένης Κούρτοβικ; born 15 July 1948) is a Greek writer, literary critic and anthropologist. He studied biology in Athens and West Germany and specialized later on physical anthropology. In 1986 he obtained a doctoral degree from the University of Wroclaw, Poland, with a thesis on the evolution of human sexuality.
He has plied several occupations, from night watchman to university teaching, from translator to film and literary critic. In the period 1973–75 he was co-founder, director and actor of the "Greek Workers' Stage" in Stuttgart, Germany. Between 1990 and 1995, he taught at the University of Crete the subjects of history of human sexuality, sexual semiotics in art and animal behaviour. Until 2017, he worked as literary critic for the Athens daily 'Ta Nea'.
He has published until now 21 books (novels, short stories, essays, reviews, aphorisms, literary dictionaries, scientific treatises and textbooks). He also has translated 63 books from eight foreign languages (English, German, French, Italian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian). Several of his novels and short stories were translated into German, French, English, Danish, Swedish, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, and Polish.
The following versions of his name also occur in other languages: Demosthenes Kourtovik, Dimosthenis Kurtovik, Demosthenes Kurtovik, Démosthène Kourtovik.
He lives on the island of Aegina.
Τρεις χιλιάδες χιλιόμετρα (Three Thousand Kilometers), short stories, 1980
Ο τελευταίος σεισμός (The Last Earthquake), novel, 1985
Το ελληνικό φθινόπωρο της ΄Εβα-Ανίτα Μπένγκτσον (The Greek Autumn of Eva-Anita Bengtsson), novel, 1987
Η σκόνη του γαλαξία (Galaxy Dust), novel, 1991
Η νοσταλγία των δράκων (The Nostalgia of Dragons), novel, 2000
Το άλλο μονοπάτι (The Other Path), short stories, 2007
Τι ζητούν οι βάρβαροι (What the Barbarians Are Asking For), novel, 2008
Λαχανόρυζο του Σταυρού (Post Summer Delights), short stories, 2012
Ο ήχος της σιωπής της (The Sound of her Silence), novel, 2024
Moreover, several short stories are included in theme anthologies or published in newspapers.
Essays, aphorisms, literary criticism
Ημεδαπή εξορία (Exiled in the Native Country), essays and reviews, 1991
Αντιλεξικό νεοελληνικής χρηστομάθειας (Anti-lexicon of Modern Greek Chrestomathy), aphorisms, 1994