Australia’s premier short story awards for crime fiction written by Australian women. Entries opening soon!
Entries for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards 2026 are opening soon!
Read all about the ceremony and the 2025 prize winners here.
Professor Emerita Christina Lee, 2025 Judges’ Coordinator and winner of two trophies, said the Scarlet Stiletto Awards were remarkable in their ability to discover outstanding criminal talent.
“Winning a Scarlet Stiletto Award has often been a springboard to a literary career. To date, more than 5,000 stories have been entered, with 34 Scarlet Stiletto Award winners – including category winners – going on to have novels published,” she said.
“Well-known authors who got their start with the Scarlet Stiletto Awards include Cate Kennedy, Tara Moss, Aoife Clifford, Ellie Marney, Angela Savage, and Anna Snoekstra. For Dervla McTiernan, just being shortlisted in 2015 gave her the impetus to finish five drafts of her first novel, The Rúin, and put her on the road to becoming a global publishing sensation.”
All enquiries should be directed to Ruth Wykes, Scarlet Stiletto Awards Coordinator.
Prizes are:
Swinburne University Award: 1st Prize: $2000
Simon & Schuster Award: 2nd Prize: $1000
Sun Bookshop & Fremantle Press Award: 3rd Prize: $800
Young Writers’ Award for Best Young Writer (under 19): $1000
Melbourne Athenaeum Library ‘Body in the Library’ Award: $1250 ($750 runner-up)
HQ Books Award for Best Thriller: $1200
Kerry Greenwood Award for Best Malice Domestic Story: $1000
Every Cloud Phryne Award for Best Mystery with History Story: $1000
Bolton Clarke Art and Crime Award: $500
Clan Destine Press Award for Best Cross-genre Story: $1000
Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue: $500
ScriptWorks Award for a Great Film Idea: $500
Writers Victoria Award for the Story with the Most Satisfying Retribution: Choice of online course and membership.
Lesley Gillis and Fran Gillis Award for Best Cosy Cat Capers: $1000
Entries are now closed for the 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards
for the best crime short stories written by Australian women.
Looking for some tips to create a criminally good story story? Check this out before submitting!
Sixteen collections of winning stories are available from Clan Destine Press, along with a hardcopy Scarlet Stiletto collection of the first-prize winning stories, The Scarlet Stiletto: 30 Years of Mystery, Murder and Malice, edited by Lindy Cameron. (paperback $36.99; e-book $7.99)
The competition is open to all women, whether cisgender, transgender, or intersex, who are citizens/residents of Australia.
Winners are announced at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards ceremony each year.
Who judges the Scarlet Stiletto Awards?
Judges for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards are drawn from convenors and former convenors of Sisters in Crime Australia and previous two-time winners of the Scarlet Stiletto trophy.