Sisters in Crime Australia held its 2022 Annual General Meeting on Friday 28 October, following its Felony and Fun event at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. It had convened a delayed 2021 AGM on Zoom only five months earlier but needed to get back in sync with the schedule required by Consumer Affairs Victoria. Nevertheless, it has broken many records!
Janna Thompson, one of Australia’s most distinguished philosophers, and a long-time member of Sisters in Crime Australia, decided to turn her hand to crime when the pandemic hit Melbourne in 2020.The result is Lockdown (Clan Destine Press), a novel which explores how the invisibility of older women can provide the perfect cover for criminal investigations. Janna put the finishing touches to Lockdown before just before her death from multiple brain tumours in June at the age of 79.
Sisters in Crime Australia is proud to announce that 27 stories by 25 authors have been shortlisted for its 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories written by Australian women. Nicole Chamoun, star of Troppo, will present the awards at a gala dinner on Saturday 3 December, 6 for 6.30 pm, at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. She will first discuss her life in crime with author and podcaster, Vikki Petraitis.
Seven of Australia’s most popular female crime writers converged on the South Coast in August for a Sisters in Crime two-day writers festival on August 27 and 28. Candice Fox, Vikki Petraitis, Sulari Gentill, Fleur Ferris, Ilsa Evans, Professor Caroline de Costa, and Dorothy Johnston debated all matters crime before 100 people packed into the Cobargo Hall and a live-streamed global audience.
Debut books in the crime and mystery genre scooped all six awards in Sisters in Crime’s 22nd Davitt Awards on 27 August – Charlotte McConaghy’s Once there Were Wolves; Leanne Hall’s The Gaps; Nicki Greenberg’s The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel; Jacqueline Bublitz’s Before You Knew My Name (two awards); and Kate Holden’s, The Winter Road.
Thirty-three books on Sisters in Crime’s shortlist for its 22nd Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books! Not all that excessive given that 169 books have been in contention. The Davitts are riding the crest of an enormous wave of popularity for crime writing by Australian women. Women like writing it, the publishers like printing it, and we all love reading it.
NOW CLOSED! Sisters in Crime’s 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories are offering a record $12,365 in prizes this year. The judging is underway!
An astonishing 169books are competing in Sisters in Crime’s 22nd Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books. Voting for the Readers’ Award Choice opens on Friday 10 June, closing Friday 24 July. Only financial members of Sisters in Crime are eligible to vote.
One of the silver linings of two terrible years of lockdowns has been Zoom which has allowed Sisters in Crime to feature authors from all over Australia and parts beyond. It has enabled us to reach a national and indeed global audience, and to hold AGMs such as this where all members can participate, irrespective of geographical location. Temporarily, at least, we have overcome the tyranny of distance.
Sisters in Crime celebrated its 30th birthday at the magnificent new Victorian Pride Centre in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda on Saturday (23 April). The building resounded with the voices of nearly a hundred Sisters in Crime and Brothers-in-Law belting out the chorus of “Sisters are writin’ it for themselves”.