University of East Anglia creative writing student Femi Kayode has won the £3,000 Little, Brown Award for crime fiction for his "shocking and emotional story, Lightseekers. It’s the second year the publisher has run the award in partnership with the UEA Creative Writing crime fiction MA. Last year's winner, Merle Nygate, won the award with the novel, A Righteous Spy.
The International Crime Fiction Association has announced a new annual book prize to recognize ingenuity, innovation, and scholarship in the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its widest sense. Monographs and edited collections can be nominated by publishers, members of the association, and authors. There will be one winner who will receive £100 plus a write-up from the independent judges which can be used for publicity purposes. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)
For a very Halloween-y literary conference, try the Bram Stoker festival in Dublin, Ireland, from October 26-29. Stoker, the author who gave us Dracula, is celebrated through performances, workshops, theater, live music, podcasts, audio tours, film screenings, and parades. One of the most inventive events of the weekend may be the festival’s NYsferatu: Symphony of a Century. Taking place at St. Anne’s Church – the Church where Stoker married Florence Balcombe in 1878 – this reimagining of the classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu is instead an animated interpretation, accompanied by a live score that was specially composed for the festival by Irish musician Matthew Nolan.
The deadline for the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers is fast approaching, on November 1. Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form. Candidates must submit a letter of application, short bio and short synopsis and three consecutive chapters of the writer’s Malice Domestic genre work-in-progress. Each grant may be used to offset registration, travel, or other expenses related to attendance at a writers' conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award. You can read all the details here.
A "Mystery Author Extravaganza" rolls into Maryland's Howard County Library (Miller Branch) on Saturday, November 3rd, where sixteen authors from the Sisters in Crime Chessie Chapter will be speaking about their new books and short stories published this year. Those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Mary Ann Corrigan (Maya Corrigan), Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Mary Ellen Hughes, Maureen Klovers, Sujata Massey, Alan S. Orloff, Susan Reiss, Colleen Shogan, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Karen Neary, Lane Stone, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley Stegmaier, and Rebecca York.
The Bible in Crime Fiction and Drama one-day conference heads to the University of Edinburgh on January 8, 2019. This conference brings together multi-disciplinary scholarship from the fields of biblical interpretation, literary criticism, criminology, and studies in film and television to discuss international texts and media spanning the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The Keynote Speaker is Professor Liam McIlvanney, University of Otago and author of The Quaker, winner of the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018.
The Morgan Library and Museum in NYC is commemorating all things Frankenstein on this 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's classic tale. Exhibits include a digital interactive version of Shelley’s annotated book, as well as the actual physical manuscript; Gothic artifacts that inspired the horror elements, including paintings and illustrations; movie and theater posters; comic books; and even what are possibly fragments of P. B. Shelley’s skull. If you can't make it in time for Halloween, don't despair - the exhibit runs through January 27, 2019. (HT to Book Riot)
Criminal Element is sponsoring a Halloween sweepstakes to enter for a chance to win a copy of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, plus a bookplate signed by the author. Entries will be accepted through October 31st.
Continuing a long tradition begun with the publication of Ian Fleming's short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity," in the March 1960 issue, James Bond will again appear in the pages of Playboy Magazine this fall. The brand new short story—in comic book form—is written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Bob Q. It takes place in March 1941 when "James is dropped off the coast of Belgium to help a Resistance cell take out a supply train that's important to the Nazis."
We marked another passing this week, as the Rap Sheet noted: author Tom Kakonis, who published six crime novels before retiring for over a decade, then resumed fiction writing with the novel Treasure Coast, has died. He was often called the heir-apparent to Elmore Leonard and the “master of the low-life novel," and Kirkus Reviews lauded his "exhilaratingly tough yet deeply humane storytelling."
As the Express notes, Agatha Christie learned about the properties of everything from cyanide to strychnine by working in a hospital dispensary in wartime, as her newly released volunteer service card reveals.
Writing for the Daily Beast, Allison McNearney looked at the "haunting mystery" of Edwin Drood that Charles Dickens left behind, and how various authors and productions have tackled the unfinished novel through the years.
Speak of the Dickens, here are some "Spooky Charles Dickens Quotes for Halloween."
Erica Wickerson delves into the reasons people still love a good whodunnit.
Kings River Life ezine has a couple of online Halloween mystery short story for you, "The House of Screams" by Guy Belleranti, and "The Yard Police Meet Their End."
Although I mentioned it last work, Mystery Fanfare's list of Halloween-themed crime fiction bears repeating, because have you seriously been able to read all of those books in just one week?
Mystery Lovers Kitchen has holiday-themed recipes for you, including Spider Donuts, via author Daryl Wood Gerber, and Pumpkin Apple Cake from Krista Davis.
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "He Likes His Beer" by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozabal.
In the Q&A roundup, The Daily Mail profiled John Grisham and got his take on the death penalty, Hollywood, and writing in the era of Trump; Deborah Kalb interviewed Webb Hubbell about the latest in his Jack Patterson thriller series, The Eighteenth Green; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lyndsay Faye discussed Arthur Conan Doyle, Mycroft, and the world of Holmes pastiches for Crimereads; and Karin Slaughter spoke with Molly Odnitz of Crimereads on the evolution of the thriller genre and its treatment of women.
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