Gregory Kolovakos

{{short description|American literary translator, best known as translator of Latin American literature}}

Gregory Kolovakos (July 30, 1951 – April 16, 1990) was an American literary translator and activist, best known as a translator of Latin American literature by writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, José Donoso and Mario Vargas Llosa,[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/17/obituaries/gregory-kolovakos-translator-38.html "Gregory Kolovakos; Translator, 38"]. The New York Times, April 17, 1990. and as the founding executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.Vincent Doyle, Making Out in the Mainstream: GLAAD and the Politics of Respectability. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016. {{ISBN|9780773546783}}.

He was also director of the literature program for the New York State Council on the Arts,"'Poet Laureate' of New York Given Honors Posthumously". The New York Times, March 18, 1982. a board member of the Lesbian and Gay Community Service Center, and a founder of the AIDS Treatment Project and the PEN Fund for Writers and Editors with AIDS."Public Reading to Help AIDS-Afflicted Writers". The New York Times, September 15, 1988.

He died of AIDS on April 16, 1990 at his home in Manhattan. He was survived by his partner Bruce Becker."Corrections". The New York Times, April 21, 1990. Following his death, the PEN American Center's Gregory Kolovakos Award and the Lambda Literary Foundation's Gregory Kolovakos Award for AIDS Literature were named in his honour.