Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards for Australian women’s best short crime and mystery stories turn 31 this year. This round offers a record $13,400 in prizes.
The first prize winner takes home $2000, donated by Swinburne University of Technology, plus the coveted trophy, a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a mount. The shortlist will be announced in October, with the awards being presented at a gala ceremony in Melbourne in late November.
A brand-new award – the Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue ($500) – is being offered this year.
Kennedy, who won the first two Scarlet Stiletto Awards in 1994 and 1995 and rapidly became one of Australia’s most admired and awarded short-story writers (even having a story published in the New Yorker) said the ‘forensic clue’ was a photo of a scarlet stiletto, lying mysteriously abandoned in Melbourne’s mean streets.
“Authors are encouraged to take it from there. I hope it will inspire some great new stories. The photo was taken by theatre-maker Claire Wearne, whom I picture lurking round the city streets like a subculture gumshoe, taking great and intriguing photos such as this one,” she said.
“When I asked if I could snaffle this one to use as an inspiration for a new Scarlet Stiletto category, she was all for it.”
Kennedy credits the Scarlet Stiletto Awards as a major influence and support in her literary career and has returned over the years as both judge and award presenter.
“I often find myself inspired by odd snapshots and small, intriguing news stories as a springboard to write a new story,” she said, “because I like that ‘what if…?’ feeling of unexplained secrets and private, out-of-the-limelight little dramas which might become a satisfying crime short story. I hope writers feel inspired to create a little world out of this one.
“There’s a bit of a Cinderella feel to the photo – if, of course, Cinderella had gone to a ball at a BYO Chinese restaurant . . . I am really looking forward to seeing what scenarios and atmospheres writers might conjure with this image!”
Professor Emerita Christina Lee, judges’ coordinator and winner of two trophies, said that the Scarlet Stiletto Awards were remarkable in their ability to uncover outstanding criminal talent.
“Winning a Scarlet Stiletto Award has often been a springboard to a literary career. To date, 4582 stories have been entered, with 34 Scarlet Stiletto Award winners – including category winners – going on to have novels published,” she said.
“Well-known authors who got their start with the Scarlet Stiletto Awards include Kennedy, Tara Moss, Aoife Clifford, Ellie Marney, Angela Savage, and Anna Snoekstra. For Dervla McTiernan, just being shortlisted in 2015 gave her the impetus to finish five drafts of her first novel, The Rúin, and put her on the road to becoming a global publishing sensation.”
Like many of Sisters in Crime’s best ideas, Scarlet Stiletto Award sprang from a well-lubricated meeting in St Kilda in 1994, when the convenors debated how they could unearth the female criminal talent they were convinced was out there.
“Once a competition was settled on, it didn’t take long to settle on a name – the scarlet stiletto, a feminist play on the traditions of the genre. The stiletto is both a weapon and a shoe worn by women. And of course, the colour scarlet has a special association for us as women. And they were right – talent is lurking everywhere, sometimes in the most unlikely places,” Lee said.
All of the first-prize-winning stories over the past 30 years have recently been narrated by Susanna Lobez for Sisters in Crime’s very first podcast – Scarlet Stiletto Bites: Scintillating Stories by Australian Women. Other stories are being progressively podcast, with a new story available for free listening every Friday night on Apple, Spotify; Google; Amazon, and other services.
The full list of this year’s awards is:
Swinburne University Award: 1st Prize: $2000
Simon & Schuster Award: 2nd Prize: $1000
Sun Bookshop & Fremantle Press Award: 3rd Prize: $750
Allen & Unwin Award for Best Young Writer (under 19): $1000
Monash University Award for Best Campus Crime Story: $600
Melbourne Athenaeum Library ‘Body in the Library’ Award: $1250 ($750 runner-up)
Every Cloud Award for Best Mystery with History Story: $1000
HQ Fiction Award for Best Thriller: $1000
Clan Destine Press Award for Best Cross-genre Story: $750
Kerry Greenwood Award for Best Malice Domestic Story: $750
Viliama Grakalic Art and Crime Award: $750
Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue: $500
ScriptWorks Award for a Great Film Idea: $500
Liz Navratil Award for Best Story with a Disabled Protagonist Award: $500
Writers Victoria Award for the Story with the Most Satisfying Retribution: Choice of online course plus membership, worth $300.
Fifteen collections of winning stories are available from Clan Destine Press, along with a hardcopy Scarlet Stiletto collection of the first-prize winning stories, The Scarlet Stiletto: 30 Years of Mystery, Murder and Malice, edited by Lindy Cameron (paperback $36.99; e-book $7.99)
The closing date for the awards is 31 August 2024. The entry fee is $25, or $20 for Sisters in Crime members. Maximum length is 5000 words.
The competition is open to all women, whether cisgender, transgender, or intersex, who are citizens/residents of Australia.
To download information and a list of FAQs, go to:
https://www.sistersincrime.org.au/the-scarlet-stiletto-awards/
To pay the entry fee go to scarletstiletto2024.eventbrite.com
Media comment: Christina Lee; 0424 003 285; c.lee@psy.uq.edu.au
Additional information: Carmel Shute, Secretary and National Convenor, 0412 569 356: admin@sistersincrime.org.au