Forgotten Women’s History

L. J.M. OWEN: As an emerging author, I’ve been asked a few times why I write historical crime fiction. The question caught me unawares the first time. I knew I had a fire burning deep in my belly, an obsessive need to write, but there had to be more to it than that. I knew …

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Kill Me Now

ANNIE HAUXWELL: Is there anything more boring, but simultaneously distressing, than reading your own book? You know how it ends. You want to change everything. The villain bears an uncomfortable resemblance to your mother. A bit like life. Don’t get me wrong, publication is a blessing but when the ‘pages’ arrive from the typesetter, after …

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And the Neddy goes to…

On Sunday August 28 ACWA – the Australian Crime Writers Association – presented their 21st annual Ned Kelly Awards. The Neddy for Best First Fiction went to Emma Viskic which made it a quadrella for her novel Resurrection Bay, after winning three Davitt Awards the previous night. The Ned Kelly for Best Fiction went to Dave Warner …

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SheKilda 3: A one-day crime spree

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 …

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16th annual GALA Davitt Awards Dinner

Tickets are selling fast to our premier frock-up event on Saturday 27 August, 7 pm. Liane Moriarty – global literary sensation and winner of the 2015 Davitt Award for Best Adult novel – is our special guest presenter.   She will be interrogated about her six international bestsellers by Vikki  Petraitis. The Davitt Awards, proudly supported by Booktopia, Australia’s No. 1 …

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Fact to Fiction

PAM BURTON: I am a lawyer and a writer, primarily, of non-fiction. My first major work was an unauthorised biography of Australia’s first female High Court Justice, Mary Gaudron, From Moree to Mabo: the Mary Gaudron story. Next, drawing on my experience in medico-legal and mental health work, I wrote The Waterlow Killings: a portrait …

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Carmel Shute to be honoured at Ned Kelly Awards

  The NED KELLY AWARDS shortlist has been announced along with the news that this year the Australian Crime Writers Association will honour our very own Carmel Shute with a Lifetime Achievement Award. As we all know, Carmel – a founder and longest-serving National Co-Convener of Sisters in Crime Australia – has spent a quarter of a …

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Psychiatry and Crime

ANNE BUIST: My first venture into crime was a six-month stint at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre – a maximum security prison for women. As the prison psychiatrist, not an inmate. This would have been not long after it opened in 1996. A modern low rise sprawl of buildings behind security fences in a desolate …

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My First Crimes

LIZ PORTER: When people ask me what my first novel, Unnatural Order, is about, I say: It’s about an obsessive sexual relationship. That’s true, but it’s only part of the story. If I feel the questioner really wants to know, I venture the long answer and say that it’s about a journalist, Caroline, who goes …

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