Nicole Chamoun to present the 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards

Saturday 3 December • 6 for 6.30 pm, Rising Sun, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne.

Please book individually or for groups through Eventbrite by Wednesday 30 November, 3 pm. Men or ‘brothers-in-law’ welcome.

Nicole Chamoun, star of Troppo, will present Sisters in Crime’s 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories in collaboration with award-winning author and podcaster, Vikki Petraitis, at a gala ceremony at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. Ditch lockdown and Melbourne’s signature black and go troppo –a prize for the best outfit.

This year 195 short stories competed for 15 awards, with a record $12,365 prize pool. Twenty-seven stories by 25 authors have been shortlisted. Each author will receive a framed certificate and the winner of the 1st Prize will also take home ‘The Shoe’– a scarlet stiletto trophy with its steel heel plunged into a perspex mount. (Click here for details of the shortlist and prizes.)

Nicole Chamoun will present the Awards after discussing her life in crime with Vikki Petraitis. Nicole has graced our screens for several years. Most recently, she starred in Troppo, the eight-part series based on the novel Crimson Lake by award-winning author and Sisters in Crime member, Candice Fox.

Crime film buffs may have spotted Nicole as Shirin’s mother in Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2019). In 2018, she played the role of Iraqi refugee Zahra Al-Bayati in the SBS critically acclaimed drama Safe Harbour. This earned nominations for the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Drama and the Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actress. Also in 2018, she had a key role in another SBS series, On the Ropes (for which she was nominated for the 2019 Logie for Most Outstanding Actress). In Romper Stomper, Stan’s 2018 six-part sequel to the 1992 film, she played the part of Laila, a Muslim law student. Nicole has also appeared in City Homicide (2007) and The Doctor Blake Mysteries (2017).

Vikki Petraitis is best known for her 18 true crime books, but this year, she crossed a genre line with her PhD novel, The Unbelieved, which won the inaugural Allen & Unwin Crime Fiction Award and was published in August to much acclaim.

Vikki is a hugely popular speaker and a former Sisters in Crime convenor. Within the true crime genre, she has covered a vast range of topics such as police dogs, Lawyer X, the Russell Street bombing, and sex crimes. Titles include The Frankston Murders, a best-seller about serial killer Paul Denyer, and The Phillip Island Murder, her first book, which has been featured in several TV shows and podcasts. Her serial Casefile Presents podcasts, The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron and Searching for Sarah MacDiarmid, have together been downloaded more than three million times.

Sun Bookshop stall: Sisters in Crime members receive a 10% discount