Mystery Melange

Heads up, publishers (and authors, if you need to remind your publishers): as Rhian Davies reminds us at It's a Crime (or a Mystery), today is the last day to submit books and short stories to the CWA Dagger Awards.

Time's also running out to enter the NoirCon 2012 Poetry Contest — the deadline is Friday, March 2nd. How do they define "noir poetry"? It's "Poetry that makes reference to the subject matter, dialog or style of film noir or the hard-boiled detective genre, or, (2) Poetry that invokes stark urban landscapes and atmosphere, and which either alludes to crime and perilous attachments or else seems to bear dark knowledge of this territory, or (3) Poetry that tells the story of tortured souls—lovers, psychopaths, obsessives—driven down deadly paths, following desperate plans that are doomed to failure."

Speaking of crime poetry, Gerald So is seeking bloggers to participate in the upcoming 5-2 Blog Tour for Poems on Crime to promote The Lineup #4. The deadline to letting him know you're interested is March 15th, and the tour itself starts in April, which is National Poetry Month.

Spinetingler has a nifty Tournament of 2011 Crime Fiction Ebooks they're starting today. Go vote and join in the fun.

It's not too late to read the February issue of Gumshoe Review online, edited by Gayle Surrette and filled with a wide range of reviewed books and the U.S. Books column that gives you information on new book releases.

Mystery Writers of America will continue its MWA University series with a one-day workshop of top-notch classes at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha on June 16th. Talks include author Jess Lourey on "After the Idea"; Laura DiSilverio on "Dramatic Structure & Plot"; Daniel Stashower on "Setting & Description";  John Galligan on "Voice, Dialogue and Point of View"; Reed Farrel Coleman on "Character"; Hallie Ephron on "Writing as Re-Writing"; and Hank Phillippi Ryan on "The Writing Life."