Sisters in Crime Australia launched the Davitt Awards for best crime books by Australian women at its 10th anniversary convention, SheKilda 2001, to provide some much needed – and overdue – recognition for Australian women crime writers.
The Davitts are named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865. An e-book of Force and Fraud was published by Clan Destine Press in 2015 to mark its 150th anniversary.
Back in 2001, women barely got a look-in with the Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing. While women now regularly are shorlisted for and win a “Neddy”, they are still underrepresented generally when it comes to awards, reviews and opportunities.
Since 2001 the Davitts have played a pivotal role in getting women’s crime writing published and better recognised. Back in 2001 only seven books were in contention, although the awards did not then apply to non-fiction. Now almost 200 books are regularly in contention, and as self publishing becomes ever more popular this number is growing significantly.
Six Davitt Awards are presented annually:
- Best Adult Crime Novel
- Best Young Adult Crime Novel
- Best Children’s Crime Novel
- Best Non-fiction Crime Book
- Best Debut Crime Book (any category)
- Readers’ Choice (as voted by the members of Sisters in Crime Australia).
For information about this year’s Davitts Awards go to the dedicated portal.
Past winners range from Caroline Shaw in 2001 to Sulari Gentill in 2012 to Ellie Marney in 2015 and many more. A full list can be found here.
Sisters in Crime member, Jessie Byrne, has written a 20,000 word exegesis about the Davitt Awards as part of her Creative Writing PhD at the University of Adelaide: Just Deserts: Reading, Writing and Rewarding Australian Women’s Crime Fiction (2019). To read, click here: Jessie Byrne JUST DESERTS – Exegesis 2019