A cause for celebration: Launch of Sisters in Crime’s 30th Scarlet Stiletto Awards

Friday 2 June@ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Join us for an historic (and enjoyable) occasion – the launch of Sisters in Crime’s 30th Scarlet Stiletto Awards.

Angela Savage, CEO of Public Libraries Victoria and winner of the 2011 Scarlet Stiletto trophy, will launch the 30th Scarlet Stiletto Awards and host celebratory readings of winning ‘Body in the Library’ stories from the past two years.

This year, the Scarlet Stiletto Awards offer over $10,000 in prize money for the best crime or mystery short stories. Since 2012, the Melbourne Athenaeum Library has sponsored the ‘Body in the Library’ Award, which now offers a $1,250 prize to the winner and $750 to the runner-up. This partnership has seen the number of entries grow each year, clearly a prize worth killing for.

The ‘Body in the Library’ Award honours Agatha Christie and her pioneering 1942 Miss Marple novel of the same name. In the Foreword, Christie describes ‘the body in the library’ as a cliché of detective fiction, and her novel consciously (and ironically) reworks the genre.

Winning stories continue this grand tradition. Acting Melbourne Athenaeum CEO Sophie Arnold will read the historic foreword.

Sisters in Crime members, Susanna Lobez, actor, lawyer, author, bon vivant, and Leigh Redhead crime writer, noir scholar, and femme fatale, will read the last two winning Body in the Library Awards:

“Death’s Waiting Room,” Clare Fletcher’s winning story from 2021

“The Surrogate,” Jem Tyley-Moore’s winning story from 2022

Doors open at 5.30 pm and entry includes a glass of wine or sparkling water. The event and readings start at 6 pm.

If you want to enter this year’s competition, please go to the Scarlet Stiletto webpage for information and the history of the Awards. This year’s entry form and FAQs are being prepared, but meanwhile, last year’s will give you a guide.

Books on sale courtesy of the Sun Bookshop. 10% discount for Sisters in Crime members. Book here.

$10 – $15. $10 (concession/members of the Melbourne Athenaeum Library and Sisters in Crime) Seating is limited so please book by Friday 2 June, 3 pm.

Melbourne Athenaeum Library

Lvl 1, 188 Collins Street
Melbourne, 3000 Australia+ Google Map

03 9650 3100
www.melbourneathenaeum.org.au