Organizers of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival have announced the Special Guests for the 2024 event. Curated by bestselling crime writer and 2024 Festival Programming Chair Ruth Ware, the headliners for this year’s program include Chris Carter, Jane Casey, Elly Griffiths, Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan, Dorothy Koomson, Shari Lapena, Abir Mukherjee, Liz Nugent, and Richard Osman. Returning to Harrogate for its 21st year, July 18–21, the festival offers fans from around the world an opportunity to hear from the biggest stars of the genre, discover exciting new talent, and enjoy a lineup of panels, talks, and inspiring creative workshops. Tickets for the Classic Weekend Break Packages, Author Dinners, and Creative Thursday are on sale now.
CrimeFest, the UK’s biggest crime fiction convention, has announced a headline 2024 event with Murdle author, G.T. Karber. The Arkansas author has staged more than thirty immersive whodunits in the LA area as the General Secretary of the Hollywood Mystery Society, and will host a special Murdle event on CrimeFest’s opening night. Karber joins featured guests for 2024’s CrimeFest, authors Laura Lippman, Denise Mina, Lynda Plante, and James Lee Burke. Karber will also take part in a panel on Columbo, alongside fellow aficionados of the iconic TV show, including Lippman and Vaseem Khan, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). CrimeFest, sponsored by Specsavers, will take place May 9-12 at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, with 150 authors appearing in over fifty panels. (HT to Crimespree)
Sisters in Crime is accepting applications for its 11th annual Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, a $2,000 grant given to an emerging writer of color. Candidates must apply by March 31, with the winner announced later this spring. Named for the late, pioneering African American crime fiction author, Eleanor Taylor Bland, the award is intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The winner may choose to use the grant for activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of their work. Past winners include Nicole Prewitt, Shizuka Otake, D. Ann Williams, Yasmin Angoe, Jessica Martinez, Mia P. Manansala, Jessica Ellis Laine, Stephane Dunn, Vera H-C Chan, and Maria Kelson. There is no fee to enter and submissions are open to any crime writer of color who has not published more than ten short works or two novels.
The Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction 2024 is also now open for entries. The Lindisfarne Prize recognizes outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction and is sponsored by author L J Ross through her publishing imprint, Dark Skies Publishing. The Prize is open to all writers resident in the UK whose work celebrates the North East of England, and who have not previously had their submission published in any form (though they might have had other stories published before). The winning entry will be awarded a prize of £2,500 to support the completion of their work and funding towards a year’s membership of both the Society of Authors (SoA) and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). The submission window will close on June 30th, with the winner being announced in September.
Writers Police Academy's Killer Con, a Homicide and Crime Scene Investigator Training Academy for Writers, will be held June 6-9, 2024, in Green Bay, WI. Now in its 15th year, the event includes four days of hands-on homicide and crime scene investigator instruction at a renowned law enforcement training academy. This year's event will focus on the crime of murder and will guide writers through the various stages of investigations to experience what it’s like to step into a crime scene as an investigator. In addition to the Special Guest of Honor, Charlaine Harris, several top-tier law enforcement instructors and forensics experts will be on hand as presenters. Organizer Lee Lofland has more about this year's highlights via a two-part link on his blog, here and here.
The crime fiction conference season is beginning to crank up again, but so, too, are smaller events such as Ireland's Ennis Book Club Festival on March 11, where Denise Mina, Andrea Mara and Doug Johnstone will discuss crime fiction with Andrea Carter. Sisters in Crime will present "Top Five Tips for Writing Mysteries," an online workshop on February 24, led by author Andrea J. Johnson, biologist Libby Hubscher, emergency physician and toxicologist Jen Prosser, ER doctor Melissa Yi, and SinC Executive Director, Julie Hennrikus. On March 21, Mystery Writers of America, New York, are presenting "Criminal Tendencies: What Makes a 'Good' Villain" at the Harlem Public Library, led by moderator Elizabeth Mannion and panelists Catherine Maiorisi, Charles Salzberg, and Cathi Stoler.
From March 23 through August 24, 2024, UK's Cambridge University Library will feature the exhibit, "Murder by the Book: A Celebration of 20th Century British Crime Fiction." Bringing together literature, culture and heritage, the exhibit, curated by award-winning crime novelist, Nicola Upson, challenges traditional distinctions between literary fiction and genre fiction and showcases rare books and audio-visual recordings looking at the genre from its origins in the works of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens to contemporary best-sellers Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. With first editions of The Moonstone and Bleak House, as well as Sherlock Holmes' debut appearance, the exhibition also looks at the Library’s remarkable collections and stylish dust jackets that represent more than a century of British book design.
Here's a couple of fun calls for papers for upcoming conferences: PopCRN (the Popular Culture Network) is holding a virtual symposium May 2-3, 2024, on the topic of "Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture," with chosen presenters given the opportunity to submit their presentations as articles to the inaugural edition of the International Journal of Popular Culture. And Bowling Green State University looks ahead to the fortieth anniversary of The Living Daylights in 2027 with a call for proposals for an edited collection of essays on any aspect of Timothy Dalton’s tenure as James Bond.
Although I'm not sure the networks are listening, it appears there is growing support on social media for a revival of the TV series based on Craig Johnson's Longmire novels. The original Longmire series starred Robert Taylor as the beloved Sheriff of Absoroka County and aired on A&E from 2012-2014 before moving to Netflix, where is was canceled after season six in 2017.
In the Q&A roundup, Crime Time interviewed Gregg Hurwitz, bestselling author of the Evan Smoak thrillers, about the latest installment, Lone Wolf, where the former government assassin is pitted against a cabal of dangerous billionaires and a female foe leaving a trail of dead bodies in her wake; and Jahmal Mayfield spoke with The Venetian Vase about his novel, Smoke Kings, which features Nate Evers, a black political activist who is sent down a path of retribution after his cousin his murdered, putting him in the crosshairs of white supremacists and a corrupt cop.
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