Sisters in Crime announces its 25th Anniversary Convention
St Kilda Town Hall ~ 19 November 2016
SheKilda3 will celebrate a quarter of a century of reading, watching, promoting and loving women’s crime writing on the page and screen.
Our third national convention – for readers, writers and fans of Australian women’s crime writing – will be held in the Victorian beachside suburb of St Kilda.
The One-Day Crime Spree – which will actually run for A-Day-and-A-Bit – will involve around 50 leading Australian novelists, true-crime writers, screenwriters, lawyers, producers, publishers and scholars.
Preceding the convention’s Saturday program of panels is a Friday afternoon of practical workshops on writing YA Crime (with Ellie Marney) and ‘winning’ Scarlet Stiletto stories (with Professor Christina Lee).
The workshops, to be held St Kilda Library, will be followed by Booze, Books and Broads with leading YA author Melina Marchetta, who’s recently turned to crime, in conversation with P D Martin.
SheKilda3 officially opens at 9.30 am on Saturday 19 November with a keynote address by Professor Sue Turnbull, a Sisters in Crime National Co-Convenor and crime reviewer for Fairfax Media
Throughout the day, there will be simultaneous sessions in the hall and council chamber and speed pitching sessions with publishers, agents and producers. Publishers include Jodie Webster (Allen & Unwin), Angela Meyer (Echo Publishing) and Lindy Cameron (Clan Destine Press). Also confirmed are producers Fiona Eagger (Every Cloud Productions), Sue Maslin (Film Art Media) and ‘script doctor’ Karin Altmann (ScriptWorks).
Topics under debate include domestic noir, detectives with a difference, unlikely heroes, mystery with history, where to draw the line in Young Adult fiction, what true crime teaches us about the law, crime on the screen and romantic suspense – or as we’re calling it, “What’s love got to do with it?”
At 4 pm, attendees will gather in the hall for The Great Debate: Dames vs Dicks : Dicks should stick to writing hardboiled and dames should stick to writing cozies.
After a cocktail party from 5.15-6.15 pm, the 23rd Scarlet Stiletto Awards for short stories will commence. Professor Turnbull will talk to Nicole da Silva (Frankie in Wentworth) prior to the awards’ presentation.
This year, to mark our 25th anniversary, a special Silver Stiletto Award, open only to previous trophy (first-prize) winners, will be offered. This has meant some first prize winners ‘banned’ from entering again (but recast as Scarlet stiletto judges) after winning ‘two shoes’ have, just for this year, were allowed to compete again.
Kerry Greenwood, a founding member of Sisters in Crime and. of course the creator of Phryne Fisher, is sponsoring the Silver Stiletto Trophy and will present it.
Afterwards, conference goers are welcome to attend a dinner at the nearby Grosvenor Hotel.
SheKilda3 will also feature book launches, like the release of six eBooks of category-winning Scarlet Stiletto stories, including the 2016 stories that will be announced that night.
We are expecting at least 300 crime fans from all over Australia and hope that all our members from country Victoria and interstate will join us for our One Day and A Bit Crime Spree.
Men, aka our ‘Brothers-in-Law’ are, as usual, always welcome. A wide range of publishers, literary/screen organisations, media programs, and other bodies have already enthusiastically endorsed SheKilda3.
The program is almost finalised and the following panelists have signed on:
Sisters in Crime: Hilary Bonney, Robin Bowles; Honey Brown; Anne Buist; Fiona Eagger; Cath Ferla; Fleur Ferris; Kylie Fox; Sulari Gentill; Anna George; Kerry Greenwood; Narrelle M Harris; Wendy James; L A Larkin; Kathryn Ledson; Kelly Lefever; Christina Lee; Rebecca Lim; Susanna Lobez; Emily Maguire; Melina Marchetta; Ellie Marney; P D Martin; L J M Owen; Bronwyn Parry; Vikki Petraitis; Shivaun Plozza; Leigh Redhead; Angela Savage; Janice Simpson; Lucy Sussex; Kendall Talbot; Sue Turnbull; Ann Turner; Emma Viskic; Nova Weetman; and Sue Williams.
Brothers-in-Law: Robert Gott; Jock Serong; Andrew Nette
For more info on the attending speakers nip over the the official SheKilda section of our website. Their bios and mugshots are lurking there with malice aforethought.
Full program, ticketing information, sponsorship opportunities and accommodation info will be available soon. In the meantime, click here to put your name down for alerts.
Come to Melbourne for the weekend of November 18-19, meet your favourite crime writers and join the criminally good fun of SheKilda3.
Click here for more info.