Mark Schuster posted in the Short Mystery Fiction Society group the finalists for the inaugural SMFS Derringer Award for Best Anthology. Voting will be held from April 1, 2025, to April 29, 2025, along with the other Derringer categories (those finalists are yet to be announced), with winners revealed May 1. The shortlist includes:
- Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024 edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler
- Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead edited by Josh Pachter
- Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense edited by Judy Penz Sheluk
- Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman
- New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6 edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco
- The 13th Letter edited by Donna Carrick
Submissions to he Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Crime Writers of Color, sponsored by Sisters in Crime, will be accepted through March 31. This $2,000 grant is intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The grantee may choose to use the grant for activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work. You do not have to be a member of Sisters in Crime to apply for this grant, but you can't have published two novels or ten or more short stories. For more information, follow this link.
Noir Con is sponsoring Dancing on the Edge of the Abyss: Goodisville 2025, to be held on Sunday, March 2nd, from 12 noon to 5:30 pm ET. David L. Goodis was a prolific writer, churning out numerous novels, movies, screenplays, pulps, and short stories. He is considered to be one of the greatest noir masters that include Jim Thompson, Chester Himes, and Charles Willeford, with work characterized by a gritty, cynical, and often fatalistic tone, exploring themes of despair, loneliness, and the underbelly of his favorite city, Philadelphia. Participants will gather at Philadelphia's Fishtown Crossing, with a bus ride to some of Goodis’s favorite haunts and his final resting place, special guest appearances, birthday cake, door prizes, Special Commemorative Goodis Swag, and more.
Bloody Scotland announced Ian Rankin will serve as their first ever guest programmer. Sir Ian is working with the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival programming team as they prepare the line-up for the event, which returns to Stirling in September. He's working with them to share his personal passions and put his unique spin on one of the UK’s largest crime fiction festivals. All will be revealed when the program launches in June 2025. On joining, Sir Ian said: "Bloody Scotland manages to remain the world’s friendliest and most inclusive crime fiction festival while also attracting the biggest and brightest names in the business to the city of Stirling. It’s epic!" Bloody Scotland will be held 12th-14th September 2025.
Noir at the Bar heads to Swampscott, Massachusetts at Cafe Avellino on February 20th at 6pm. Authors scheduled to participate include Kate Flora, Connie Hambley, Tom Davidson, Bonnar Spring, Zakariah Johnson, Gabriela Stiteler, Sally Milliken, E. Chris Ambrose, Stephen D. Rogers, and Norman Birnbach.
In the Q&A roundup, Michael Cannell, author of five non-fiction books, applied the Page 99 Test to his latest book, Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation; thriller author Luis Figueredo chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new medical legal novel, When Canaries Die; Tova Mirvis spoke with the The Boston Globe about writing her first mystery/thriller, We Would Never; and Seattle Magazine interviewed Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum about her first novel, Elita, "a Northwestern take on Nordic Noir" set during a Seattle winter in 1951.
