The Joffe Books Prize is still seeking submissions through September 30. Now in its fifth, year, the prize was created to discover and launch unagented crime writers from Black, Asian, Indigenous, and minority ethnic backgrounds. All crime genres are welcome from "electrifying psychological thrillers, to cosy mysteries, gritty police procedurals, twisty chillers, unputdownable suspense mysteries and shocking domestic noirs." The winner will be offered a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, £1,000 cash prize, and an £25,000 Audible audiobook contract for the first book. (HT to Shots Confidential)
The William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant Program for Unpublished Writers is also still accepting applications through November 1. Each year, the Malice Domestic conference sponsors the grant, designed to foster quality literature in the Malice Domestic tradition and assist the next generation of traditional mystery writers on the road to publication. The grant includes a $2,500 cash award and a comprehensive registration to Malice Domestic, including two nights' lodging at the convention hotel. Applications should include the first three chapters of your work in progress, a brief synopsis, author bio, and a statement about how the grant would be utilized. Authors must have not been published in the mystery genre in any way prior to submitting for the Malice Grant.
Organizers of the NoirCon festival are seeking raffle items—signed books, manuscripts, character naming, meet-the-author dinners, theatre tickets, artwork, or "jewel-encrusted statues of birds covered in black lacquer"—to help fund a new project: For 2026, NoirCon is partnering with Desert Noir, a new initiative dedicated to crime fiction and non-fiction stories that are ripe for screen adaptation and ideally suited to be shot against the dramatic backdrop of the Mojave Desert. The initiative will feature two annual awards honoring the best noir fiction and non-fiction adaptation project set in the desert; two mentorship labs for screenwriters; and matchmaking assistance for writers and screenplay writers to connect with international producers, distributors, and platforms. Raffle items can be sent to: NoirCon 2025 West, c/o 9711 Troon Ct, Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240-1248.
The identity of a mystery writing duo, whose first novel sparked a nine-way auction between major publishers is to be revealed at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival later this month. Evelyn Clarke, a pseudonym for a pair of authors behind much-anticipated novel, The Ending Writes Itself, is to be unmasked on the opening night of the festival. One of the authors is understood to be a New York Times bestselling author ("many times over"), while both are said to have been writing books for over a decade. Publisher HarperCollins, which won a nine-way auction to acquire the book, has described The Ending Writes Itself as "the biggest book of 2026." The story follows six authors on a private island located in Scotland with 72 hours to write the ending of a book by the late Arthur Fletch, a bestselling author.
Via Mystery Fanfare comes the sad news that Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 82, an author of science fiction, horror, and mystery, passed away on August 31. She wrote over 80 novels and 70 short works of fiction and was probably best known for her Saint-Germain historical vampire series and spin off Olivia De Clements. She also wrote several mysteries with Bill Fawcett under the name Quinn Fawcett, including the Charlie Spotted Moon mystery series.
Art Taylor's The First Two Pages welcomed Anne Laughlin with the first of a series of essays about stories from Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, co-edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West. Anne is the author of seven crime novels, mostly set in her native Chicago.
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "The High Cost of Savings" by Anonymous.
In the Q&A roundup, Joanna Schaffhausen took the Page 69 Test to Gone in the Night, her fifth Detective Annalisa Vega novel; and Simon Ball, professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds applied the Page 99 Test to his new book, Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination.
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