https://wiki.sarg.dev/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=2601%3A648%3A8200%3A7600%3A70E5%3A8B59%3A55F9%3AD1A6Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]2026-08-14T18:50:18ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=K._C._Constantine&diff=517152K. C. Constantine2025-06-21T17:11:14Z<p>2601:648:8200:7600:70E5:8B59:55F9:D1A6: </p>
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<div>{{short description|American novelist (1934–2023)}}<br />
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}<br />
{{More citations needed|date=March 2023}}<br />
{{infobox writer<br />
| name = K. C. Constantine<br />
| birth_name = Carl Constantine Kosak<br />
| birth_date = {{birth year|1934}} <br />
| birth_place = [[McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania]], U.S.<br />
| death_date = {{death date and given age|2023|03|23|88}}<br />
| death_place = [[Greensburg, Pennsylvania]], U.S.<br />
| occupation = Novelist<br />
| genre = [[Crime fiction]]<br />
| spouse = Linda J. Kosak<br />
| children = 1<br />
| notable_works = ''[[Joey's Case]]''<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Carl Constantine Kosak''' (1934 – March 23, 2023), better known by the pen name '''K. C. Constantine''', was an American [[Detective fiction|mystery]] author.<br />
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Little is known about Kosak, as he preferred anonymity and gave only a few interviews.<ref name="pg">{{Cite news |date=2011-05-03 |title=Reclusive author K.C. Constantine reveals himself at mystery fest |last=Smith |first=Pohla |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=Pittsburgh |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11123/1143638-44.stm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104232042/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11123/1143638-44.stm |archive-date=2011-11-04 |access-date=2023-03-30}}</ref> He was born in [[McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania]], and served in the Marines in the early 1950s. He was an alumnus of [[Westminster College (Pennsylvania)|Westminster College]] in [[New Wilmington, Pennsylvania]], and claimed that he "flunked freshman composition twice" because he "did not know how to make an English sentence." (As reported in the bulletin of that college's "Friends of the Library" Autumn, 1990.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}) He lived in [[Greensburg, Pennsylvania]], with wife Linda (they married in 1962) and continued after she died in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Linda Kosak Obituary (1939 - 2018) - Greensburg, PA - Tribune-Review |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/triblive-tribune-review/name/linda-kosak-obituary?id=13679122 |access-date=2023-03-31 |website=Legacy.com}}</ref><br />
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Other than that, the information is sketchy. He may have been a minor league baseball player (some had even been suggesting that Kosak was a pseudonym for former Major League baseball player [[Phil Rizzuto]]), and he may have studied at the [[University of Iowa]]'s writers' program in the 1960s. Other evidence suggests he never got near a baseball and instead was a journalist at a western Pennsylvania newspaper.<br />
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Kosak continued to work a day job until 1993, when he lost his job and turned to writing full-time. He worked for several years as an English teacher at [[Seton Hill University]] (then Seton Hill College) in Greensburg, where he taught creative writing and composition until his refusal to complete his master's degree prompted his dismissal.<br />
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His most famous creation is Mario Balzic, police chief in fictional Rocksburg, Pennsylvania. Rocksburg is a by-product of Kosak's hometown, McKees Rocks, and the nearby cities Greensburg and [[Johnstown, Pennsylvania|Johnstown]]. Kosak is much more interested in the people in his novels than the actual mystery, and his later novels become ever more philosophical, threatening to leave the mystery/detective genre behind completely. In 1989, Constantine was nominated for the [[Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel]] for the Mario Balzic novel ''Joey's Case''. In 1999 ''[[Booklist]]'' ranked ''Blood Mud'' among the year's best crime novels, saying (along with ''Brushback''), "Constantine has given us two more superb police procedurals and a wonderful opportunity to renew our acquaintance with one of the most memorable characters in contemporary crime fiction."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ott |first=Bill |date=1999-04-15 |title=The Year's Best Crime Novels |journal=Booklist |volume=95 |issue=16 |pages=1454 |via=Gale Academic OneFile}}</ref><br />
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In May 2011, Kosak appeared in person for the first time at the 16th annual Festival of Mystery held at the Greek Orthodox Church in [[Oakmont]], signing his books and giving a live interview.<ref name="pg" /><br />
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Kosak died on March 23, 2023, at the age of 88. Mysterious Press announced they would be publishing a final novel—more than twenty years after his last publication—entitled ''Another Day's Pain''.<ref name="pantalone_obit">{{Cite web |last=Home |first=Pantalone Funeral |title=Obituary for Carl Constantine Kosak |url=https://www.pantalone.com/obituary/Carl-Kosak |access-date=2023-03-30 |website=Obituary for Carl Constantine Kosak {{!}} Pantalone Funeral Home |language=en}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{K.C. Constantine}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Constantine, K. C.}}<br />
[[Category:1934 births]]<br />
[[Category:2023 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Seton Hill University]]<br />
[[Category:American mystery writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]<br />
[[Category:People from Greensburg, Pennsylvania]]<br />
[[Category:United States Marines]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]<br />
[[Category:American male novelists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]<br />
[[Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania]]</div>2601:648:8200:7600:70E5:8B59:55F9:D1A6