Award Announcement: Scarlett Stiletto 30th Anniversary Awards

2023 was the 30^th year that Sisters in Crime has run its short story awards. The year’s award ceremony was held on the 25^th of November, which also so the launch of an anthology of the winning stories for 2023 – Scarlet Stiletto: The Fifteenth Cut, edited by Phyllis King. It was launched by Cate Kennedy, who is one of Australia’s most admired short story authors. Cate also launched the paperback edition of the winning stories from the past thirty years – The Scarlet Stiletto: 30 Years of Mystery, Murder and Malice, edited by Lindy Cameron, and it is available from Clan Destine Press – $36.99 for the paperback, and $7.99 for the ebook – https://www.clandestinepress.net/.

The awards were held at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel, with attendees all dressed in scarlet. This year, 250 short stories were entered to compete for a prize pool of $12, 270, and over the past thirty years, 4582 stories have been entered, and 34 Scarlet Stiletto trophy and category winners have gone on to have books published. Notable winners include These include Cate Kennedy, Tara Moss, Angela Savage, Aoife Clifford, Ellie Marney, and Anna Snoekstra.

Award Presenters and Host:

• Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox, creators of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
• Sue Turnbull, host, crime fiction scholar, reviewer, and Sisters in Crime Ambassador
• Emerita Professor Christina Lee presented the judge’s report and is also a double shoe winner.
• Dr Carolyn Beasley
• Judith Bridge, WA librarian and comedian.

2023 Winners:

• Swinburne University of Technology First Prize – Skin and Bone by Romany Rzechowiz, which also won the Viliama Grakalic Art and Crime award
• The Sun Bookshop and Fremantle Press Third Prize – The Safehouse by Sandra Thom-Jones, she also won the Liz Navaratil Prize for story with the Best Disabled Protagonist with Motif in the Motives.
• Melbourne Athenaeum Body in the Library Award winner – The Murder in the Library by Alison Pascoe.
• Melbourne Athenaeum Body in the Library Runner-Up Award – Borrowed Time by Kim Graham.
• HQ Fiction Award for Best Thriller – Bush Chicken by Cheryl Fairclough.
• Every Cloud Production History with a Mystery – Shanty Town by JB Rowley.
• Clan Destine Press Award for Cross Genre – The Body in the Bookshop by Josephine Brick.
• Malice Domestic Award – Sticky Fingers by Georgina Coleman.
• Scriptworks Great Film Idea Award – Lady Bethany Homestead by Kim Robyn Smith.
• Writer’s Victoria Crime and Punishment Award for the most satisfying retribution – Model Husband by Athena Law
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Highly commended framed certificates went to:

• Chris Blackford & Kate Williams (Mareeba, QLD) for “Where’s Wazza???”
• Natalie Conyer (Mosman, NSW) for “The Byblos Code”
• Kellie M Cox (Mudgeeraba, Qld) for “This Game Will Keep Us Alive”
• Vicky Daddo (Hazelwood South, VIC) for “All About Eve”
• Rebecca Douglas (Modbury Heights, SA) for “Needs Must”
• Jacqui Horwood (Clunes, VIC) for “Mrs Beth”
• Tegan Huntley (Inglewood, WA) for “#Blessed
• Sharmila Jayasinghe (Bella Vista, NSW) for “Secrets Women Keep”
• Eva Leppard (Kingston, Tas)for “First Day on the Job”;
• Alyssa Mackay (Springwood, QLD) for “Pearl and Jade”;
• K T Major (Jannali, NSW) for “A Tow Out of Line”
• Cheryl Rogers (West Swan, WA) for “Sacrifice”.
• Jacqueline Warner (Canning Vale, WA) for “Parrot and Malone”.

For more information, head to: https://sistersincrime.org.au/a-sea-of-scarlet-and-pearls-celebrating-30-years-of-mystery-murder-and-malice-with-sisters-in-crimes-scarlet-stiletto-awards/