Karakatsanes received a Primary School education in Greece before he moved to Australia. In Australia he has worked as a painter. His poems were broadcast in Athens on Greek radio in 1979-80 and his work has been read on radio in Thessaloniki and Athens in 1984 and 1985 and on Radio 3EA in Melbourne in 1989. In 1987 he gave a public reading of his work at a Multicultural Writers' Night at Club Foote in Adelaide.
In 1988, as a member of the Multicultural Artworkers Committee, he contributed to the bicentennial publication by the Australia Council of A Bitter Song: A Project of Two cities and Two Cultures. In 1992 he received an Australia Council Writer's Grant and gave a public reading of his work at the 2nd Greek-Australian Literature Conference at R.M.I.T. and again at the 3rd conference at R.M.I.T. in 2000.
