Mystery Writers of America announced the 2024 recipients of the Barbara Neely Grants: Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier and Audrea Sallis. The grants program is named after the late Barbara Neely, author of one of the first crime fiction series to feature a Black woman as the protagonist, and is awarded annually to two Black crime fiction writers, one already published and another just getting started in publishing. The grant comes with a $2,000 award to assist each recipient with any aspect of their career as they see fit.
Meanwhile, each year, Sisters in Crime awards researchers grants of up to $500 for the purchase of books to support research projects that contribute to our understanding of the role of women or underrepresented groups in the crime fiction genre. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of scholars familiar with scholarship on the genre. The deadline for submissions is April 30, and for more information and to apply, follow this link.
The deadline is fast approaching for submissions to the Danger Awards 2024 sponsored by the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. Applicants must be living Australian citizens or permanent residents, and all books must have been first published (traditionally or self-published) between January 1 and December 31, 2023 to be eligible. Four awards will be presented: one for best crime fiction, one for best crime fiction debut, one for crime non-fiction, and thanks to the generous sponsorship of OverDrive Australia, a People’s Choice award will be presented covering all three categories. Interested parties must fill out the online submission form no later than 5pm on May 6, 2024. The shortlist will be announced July 30, with winners announced September 14.
As part of the Oxford Conference for the Book in Oxford, Mississippi, there will be a closing special event, "Noir at the Bar: A Gathering of Crime Writers and Music Makers," this Friday, April 5, at the Ajax Diner, 118 Courthouse Square. Authors scheduled to take part include Ace Atkins, William Boyle, Colin Brightwell, Tom Franklin, Derrick Harriell, Max Hipp, Lisa Howorth, David Joy, Tyler Keith, Clair Lamb, Tobi Ogundiran, Bea Setton, and Michael Farris Smith, with music by Kell Kellum and Bark.
On Friday, April 15 at 7pm, you can tune in for a lively conversation with Lisa Gardner (Still See You Everywhere), Robert Dugoni (A Killing on the Hill), Anne Hillerman (Lost Birds), and Carter Wilson (The Father She Went to Find), with Lisa Black serving as emcee. Although participants must register, the event is free and includes the chance to win one of the authors' novels. Be among the first 100 in the Zoom room, and you’ll have the opportunity to personally debrief the authors, or you can catch them on Facebook Live and interrogate them via comments. As an added treat, you can also sample each author’s favorite snack and drink, with their notes and recipes, with dining and drinking commencing at the start of the show. To check out the event, the recipes, and to register, follow this link.
Book publishing deals are generally too many to cover on a regular basis, but this one is a bit unusual: Antony Johnston, co-creator of The Coldest City/Atomic Blonde, Three Days in Europe, Wasteland, and the Dog Sitter Detective books, had five publishers bid on his new crime novel. The premise of the book is also unusual, an interactive solve-as-you-go-along conceit, or as Johnston explains, "Throughout the book the reader chooses who to interview and which leads to follow, taking notes and looking for clues before finally deciding who to accuse. Every decision the reader makes has consequences. If you remember 'gamebooks' (Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy, etc) you'll recognise the concept for Can You Solve the Murder? It's a game in which you play a detective solving a crime… but also a murder mystery novel, with plot twists and great character."
In an instance of crime meets art, artist and ink-maker Thomas Little uses an unexpected source for colors to make his scenes even more potent: The pigments are made from the chemical compounds of guns, taken out of circulation and dissolved in Little’s workshop. As CNN reported, "for more than five years, Little has performed this kind of alchemy, purchasing handguns and automatic rifles from pawn shops and dissolving the iron-heavy parts in acid to form iron sulfate, the basis for writing inks and artists’ pigments in deep blacks, rusty reds and warm ochres. As the son of a gunsmith, this practice is something of a birthright for him, but entirely subversive as he transforms objects of violence into materials for expression."
In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery author Dana King about his new private eye crime fiction, Off the Books, and also with mystery author Phyllis Gobbell about her new amateur sleuth novel, Notorious in Nashville; Holly Jackson spoke with The Guardian about her young adult series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which has sold millions of copies worldwide, and is currently being made into a BBC TV series; and Crime Reads interviewed SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee, co-authors of The Murder of Mr. Ma, which introduces a Holmes and Watson inspired dynamic duo consisting of two semi-fictionalized Chinese historical figures—Judge Dee Ren Jie from the 7th century, whose valorous spirit has been mythologized in countless stories, and the 20th century academic and novelist Lao She—who work together (if reluctantly, at first) to track down a serial killer targeting Chinese immigrants in post-WWI London.
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