BOOKED OUT! 22nd Davitt Awards Presentation

Frock up (or suit up) and join us for an à la carte dinner as we present Sisters in Crime’s annual Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women published in 2021.

This year, our guest presenter is Louise Milligan, the award-winning journalist and true crime writer, who will discuss her life in crime with Sisters in Crime’s Jacqui Horwood before presenting the awards.

An amazing 169 books, written by Australian women and published in 2021, are competing for Davitts in six categories: Best Adult Crime Novel, Best Children’s Crime Novel, Best Young Adult Crime Novel, Best True Crime Book, Best Debut Book (any category) and Readers’ Choice, as judged by members of Sisters in Crime.

Louise Milligan is an investigative journalist for ABC TV’s Four Corners and author of the bestselling Cardinal: The rise and fall of George Pell (Melbourne University Publishing). The case, involving one of the most senior members of the global Catholic Church, made international news prior to the trial and throughout successive – and ultimately successful – appeals. Cardinal won the 2017 Walkley Book Award and was highly commended in Sisters in Crime’s 2018 Davitt Awards.

Her 2020 book, Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice (Hachette Australia), won the 2021 Davitt Award (Non-Fiction). The culmination of five years’ work, it charts the experiences of people courageous enough to come forward and face their abusers in high-profile cases of child abuse and sexual assault. Louise was also a witness herself in the trial of the decade, R v George Pell. Her analysis is enriched by in-depth interviews with prosecutors, defence counsel, solicitors, judges, and academics.

Among the many awards for her work, Louise has received the 2019 Press Freedom Medal and the 2017 Melbourne Press Club Gold Quill Award.

Jacqui Horwood is a librarian at the State Library Victoria. She has won the 2003 Scarlet Stiletto Award, the 2005 Award for Best Crime in Verse, and the 2016 Silver Stiletto. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and the 2015 and 2016 Ada Cambridge Biography in Prose Awards. Her stories have been published in anthologies and e-zines. Jacqui is a former Sisters in Crime convenor and was a Davitt Awards judge for ten years.

Men or ‘brothers-in-Law’ welcome. Book individually or in groups of any size.

Bookings are essential by Wednesday 24 August

Sun Bookshop stall: Members receive a 10% discount.