Awards down under

The weather is heating up in the antipodes, and so is the crime-fiction awards scene.

From Craig Sisterson comes word that Neil Cross (right) has won the Ngaio Marsh Award for best New Zealand crime novel for Luther: The Calling.

Across the Tasman Sea in Melbourne, Australia, Sisters in Crime presented the Davitt Awards for crime fiction written by women. The awards honor the memory of Ellen Davitt, who wrote Australia's first known mystery novel in 1865, and the 2012 winners include Sulari Gentill, adult fiction, for her novel A Decline in Prophets. Find a complete list of winners at the Sisters in Crime Web site.

Finally, Australia's Ned Kelly Awards honored Pig Boy by J.C. Burke (best fiction), The Cartographer by Peter Twohig (best first fiction), Sins of the Father by Eamonn Duff (best true crime), A.J. Clifford "Summer of the Seventeenth Poll (S.D. Harvey Short Story Award).

Well done, mate, to all the winners and presenters.

© Peter Rozovsky 2012

Win a shelf of New Zealand crime fiction

Not everything from New Zealand is fuzzy on the outside; green, sweet, and delicious on the inside. Readers worldwide can win a set of seven New Zealand crime novels, the titles shortlisted for the titles shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. The titles are:

COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
LUTHER: THE CALLING by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)
FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT by Jack Eden (Pear Jam Books)
TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson (Penguin)
BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)
BOUND by Vanda Symon (Penguin)
THE CATASTROPHE by Ian Wedde (Victoria University Press)

Quoth the king of Kiwi crime fiction, Craig Sisterson:

"Anyone can enter the prize draw simply by emailing a photo of themselves reading any New Zealand crime, mystery, or thriller title - contemporary or from days gone by - to ngaiomarshaward (at) gmail (dot) com. 

The book in your picture doesn't have to be set in New Zealand, as long as the author is associated with New Zealand (lives in New Zealand, was born or grew up in New Zealand, etc). So whether it's a well-loved copy of a Ngaio Marsh, Elizabeth Messenger, Laurie Mantell, Michael Wall, or Paul Thomas novel that's been sitting on your bookshelf for years, or a brand new New Zealand crime novel you've recently picked up from a bookstore or library, grab your camera, take a smiling photo of yourself with the book, and send it to ngaiomarshaward (at) gmail (dot) com. If you need some inspiration when it comes to finding an eligible, mystery, or thriller novel to read and photograph, check out this list of more than 80 authors and more than 250 titles here."

I like very much that the contest offers the chance to learn something and not just scarf up a prize. So get educated and enter today!

© Peter Rozovsky 2012

And then there were three ...

The finalists for the first Ngaio Marsh Award, for best crime novel by a New Zealand citizen or resident published in New Zealand in 2009, are:

• Cut & Run by Alix Bosco (Penguin);

• Burial by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster); and

• Containment by Vanda Symon (Penguin)

Craig Sisterson, the driving force behind the awards and the man who kindly invited me to be one of the judges, sends along this note from Dame Ngaio's nephew:

I am delighted to hear of the progress of the Dame Ngaio Marsh Award, and congratulate the finalists for what sounds to be a very high standard of detective story writing. I know that Dame Ngaio would be so proud of all the entrants, and to know that her name is associated with the award. I hope you will extend my own congratulations to the writers, but also to those who have taken what will have been an enormous amount work, research and thought to create the awards very sincerely

John Dacres-Mannings

The winner will be announced Sept. 10 at The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival, and congratulations are in order for all the nominees and to Craig for his hard work in putting the awards together. Perhaps this enterprising promoter of New Zealand crime writing will have an award or a convention named for him one day. Hey, they did it for Anthony Boucher.

***

Here's a bit about Dame Ngaio, a pioneer in theater and an author whose novels and stories featuring Inspector Roderick Alleyn made her one of the pillars of crime fiction's Golden Age. Here's a personal reminiscence from author Roy Vaughan.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

All rise

The US has the Edgar Awards, the UK has the Daggers, and Canada has the Arthur Ellis Awards. The Nordic countries have the Glass Key, Australia the Ned Kellys and the German-speaking world the Friedrich Glauserpreis.

Now New Zealand has its own crime award, and your humble blog keeper is one of the judges. The award, named for Dame Ngaio Marsh and the brainchild of the enterprising Craig Sisterson of the Crime Watch blog, will go to one of the following novels:

Burial by Neil Cross

Cut and Run by Alix Bosco

Access Road by Maurice Gee

Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly

Containment by Vanda Symon

No details on my choices here. Suffice it to say that the shortlist contained some very pleasant surprises. More to come.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010