The International Association of Crime Writers, North America announced the 2022 Hammett Prize Shortlist. This year's honorees include: Copperhead Road, by Brad Smith; Gangland, by Chuck Hogan; Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor; Pay Dirt Road, by Samantha Jayne Allen; and What Happened to the Bennetts, by Lisa Scottoline. The Hammett Prize is given for literary excellence in crime writing published in the English language in the U.S. or Canada. The winner will be announced Summer 2023. Past winners have included Elmore Leonard, Alice Hoffman, James Lee Burke, Margaret Atwood, Mary Willis Walker, Martin Cruz Smith, Gil Adamson, Megan E. Abbott, George Pelecanos, Howard Owen, Lisa Sandlin, and others.
The 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards finalists were announced late last week. More than 2,500 entries spread across 55 genres were submitted for consideration, with finalists determined by Foreword Magazine’s editorial team. You can see all the categories here, and also check out the finalists in the Mystery Category and in the Thriller & Suspense Category. Winners in each genre—along with Editor’s Choice Prize winners and Foreword’s Independent Publisher of the Year—will be announced June 15, 2023.
The Lambda Literary Awards (or "Lammys") announced this year's finalists for the finest LGBTQ books of the previous year. The nods in the 2023 Best LGBTQ+ Mystery category include: A Death in Berlin by David C Dawson; And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling; Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan; Dirt Creek: A Novel by Hayley Scrivenor; and Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. Finalists and winners for the 35th annual Lammy Awards will be celebrated in live in New York at the Edison Ballroom as well as in an immersive virtual platform on Friday, June 9th.
Glencairn Crystal, sponsor of the McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime writing awards, announced the winners of this year's crime short story competition, which had the theme of "Scottish Crime," meaning the story must be set in Scotland. More than 100 stories were entered in the competition, each containing no more than 2,000 words. First place went to "Dummy Railway" by Francis Crawford, and the runner up was "The Last Tram to Gorbals Cross" by Alan Gaw. Crawford receives £1,000 and publication in the May issue of Scottish Field Magazine, while Gow receives £500. Both authors will also receive a set of six bespoke engraved Glencairn glasses.
Writers Digest is sponsoring their 9th Annual Mystery and Thriller Virtual Conference March 25-26. The event aims to help authors learn the finer points of how to write within the mystery and thriller genres. The bestselling authors scheduled to lead workshops include Kate White, Jessica Strawser, Jaime Lynn Hendricks, Hank Phillipi Ryan, Jeffery Deaver, Chris Mooney, and Jesse Q. Sutanto, on such topics as "Master Pacing" and "Visual Storytelling. For more information, follow this link.
Good publishers can lift up not only authors and readers, but the entire industry, as well. A case in point is Dean Street Press, which was established in 2015 and specializes in literary, general and crime fiction, particularly golden age mysteries. The company was founded by Richard Heath, who tragically died of a heart attack last week following the death of his wife from cancer. He was only 54. Curtis Evans had a personal remembrance of Heath on Evans's crime fiction blog, The Passing Tramp.
The New York Times has a series called "Overlooked No More," a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. One of the most recent features was for Dilys Winn, who opened Murder Ink, believed to be the nation’s first mystery bookstore, and brought fans together through interactive whodunits and other events. Winn was also the author of Murder Ink, which included offbeat essays by established figures and Winn herself (under various nom de plumes), along with character studies, photographs, quizzes and more. In 1978, the Mystery Writers of America conferred an Edgar Allan Poe award on Winn, and the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association established a Dilys Award in 1992, presented annually to the mystery title its member booksellers most enjoyed selling (an award unfortunately discontinued after 2014).
Do you recall that recent news story about a mysterious thief who stole more than 1,000 unpublished manuscripts from various publishers? Once the thief was found and charged, many people in the industry wondered about the motive since the manuscripts were never sold or published. According to court filings, the thief says he merely wanted to read books before they hit stores.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Venom" by Charles Rammelkamp.
In the Q&A Roundup, Joyce St. Anthony spoke with E. B. Davis at Writers Who Kill about her latest book, Death on a Deadline, the second book in the author's Homefront News mystery series set during WWII; and Criminal Element featured a Q&A with P. J. Tracy, author of the Detective Margaret Nolan Series.
Comments