The shortlists for the British Book Awards were announced, including those in the category of Best Crime and Thriller: The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas; The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman; None of This is True by Lisa Jewell; Damascus Station by David McCloskey; The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith; and The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. The British Book Awards, also called the Nibbies, "celebrate the intimate connection between the books, their makers and their audience." Winners will be honored on May 13, 2024 through both a livestream and at Grosvenor House in London. You can see all the finalists here, which include a few extra crime titles in the Best Audiobook Fiction and Best Children's Fiction categories.
Winners of the inaugural Libby Book Awards, chosen by a vote from over 1,700 librarians and library workers across North America, have been announced, including winners in categories of interest to crime fiction fans: Best Mystery, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto; Best Thriller, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; Best Debut Author, The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes; and Best Audio Book, I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makka.
Submissions have opened for a new honor sponsored by the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the McDermid Debut Award for new writers. Named in recognition of world-famous crime writer, Val McDermid, who co-founded the Festival in 2003 and whose dedication to fostering new voices in crime fiction through the New Blood panel is legendary, this new award seeks to continue her legacy, celebrating and platforming the best debut crime writers in the UK. The McDermid Debut Award is open to full-length debut crime novels by UK and Irish authors published for the first time in hardback or paperback original between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024, with submissions closing on March 21. A shortlist of six titles will be announced on June 13, and the winner presented at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Awards event on Thursday, July 18.
International Thriller Writers announced the 2024 scholarship winners, who will each receive a full-access pass to ThrillerFest in addition to $1,000 for travel expenses: Gabbie Hanks, Emi Macuaga, and Karabi Mitra. Their entries stood out amongst the many accomplished submissions and were made possible by the Scholarship Program sponsors, including Douglas Preston, Michael Mayo, Vicki Montet, and Karin Slaughter. ThrillerFest is a five-day conference made up of five different events—a Master Class (May 28), CraftFest (May 29-30), QueryFest (May 29-31), PitchFest (May 30), and ThrillerFest (May 31-June 1), which culminates with a fun-filled Awards Banquet on the evening of June 1.
The inaugural Montreal Mystery/Montréal Mystère Festival takes place March 24-25, bringing together English and French language writers for a weekend dedicated to the mystery and thriller genres in celebration of the blend of languages, cultures, and the timeless appeal of mystery fiction. Authors scheduled to take part include Lilja Sigurðardóttir, J. L. Blanchard, Robyn Harding, Catherine Lafrance, Shari Lapena, Nicole Lundrigan, Catherine McKenzie, Marcie R. Rendon, Robert Rotenberg, Amy Stuart, Steve Urszenyi, and Tessa Wegert.
Writers of short crime fiction are often overlooked at the various festivals and workshops, and a new conference hopes to rectify that. ShortCon, billing itself as "The Premier Conference for Short Crime Fiction Writers," is scheduled to be held in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday, June 22, 2024. It will offer the opportunity to join acclaimed and award-winning crime fiction professionals for an immersive, one-day event and learn how to write short crime fiction, get your stories published, and develop and sustain a long-term career writing short. It includes three hours of in-depth instruction on how to craft short crime fiction from New York Times bestselling novelist and multiple-award-winning short-fiction author, Brendan DuBois; an insider look at the world’s leading mystery magazines by Senior Managing Editor Jackie Sherbow of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; career lessons from short-fiction legend and author of more than twelve-hundred short stories, Michael Bracken; and a wrap-up discussion led by short crime fiction rising star, Stacy Woodson.
Speaking of Michael Bracken, he was recently elected to the Texas Institute of Letters, a distinguished honor society established in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievement. The membership includes winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prizes in drama, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as prizes awarded by PEN, and dozens of other regional and national award and grant-giving institutions.
When Art Taylor took over "The First Two Pages" blog after the passing of its founder, B.K. Stevens in 2017, his first guest was Robert Lopresti, who wrote about his story, "The Chair Thief," in the November/December 2017 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Seven years later, Rob returns to the blog with a story that came out a few weeks ago in Black Cat Weekly, the cover story of that issue. "The First Two Pages" hosts craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work.
The Clues: Journal of Detection's Teaching Forum is seeking submissions of short essays that address the uses of crime fiction to teach both foreign languages and cultures in the classroom. Contributions of 750 to 1,000 words are sought for vol. 43, no. 1 (2025), and accounts from all classroom spaces (high schools, post-secondary institutions, prisons, etc.) and instructors at all stages of their careers are welcome. Submissions are due September 1, 2024.
In the Q&A roundup, Chris Nickson, a music journalist and author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and six Simon Westow mysteries, applied the Page 69 Test to The Scream of Sins, the newest Simon Westow mystery; and Tana French spoke with Crime Reads about embracing discomfort, Irish wit, and "chosen family" in her new thriller, The Hunter.
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