Crime Fiction Awards News Update

STAUNCH BOOK PRIZE

The Staunch Book Prize — the award for thrillers without violence against women — has announced its 2020 shortlist and winner for novels and short stories in one fell swoop: 

WINNER

  • Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)

OTHER FINALISTS

  • The Chemical Reaction by Fiona Erskine (Point Blank)
  • The Coldest Warrior by Paul Vidich (No Exit Press)
  • Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (Vintage)
  • Glorious Boy by Aimee Liu (Red Hen Press)
  • The Burning Island by Jock Serong (Text Publishing)

SHORT STORY SHORTLIST – STAUNCH BOOK PRIZE

WINNER

  • “Mrs Hawkins and The Orchard” by Laura Stanley

OTHER FINALISTS

  • “Flyer” by Hayley Magrill
  • “A House So Beautiful” by Malia Márquez
  • “I’ve Got The Sauce, If You’ve Got The Pasta” by Susan Morritt
  • “Manik” by Gabrielle Rupert
  • “The Lion” by Judy Upton

Bridget Lawless established the prize in 2018 in reaction to the number of films that used rape as a plot device in the 2017 BAFTA award nominees, and was inspired by the Time’s Up and Me Too movements, to encourage alternatives to violence-against-women tropes.

The award website says the award is for “a novel in the thriller genre in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.” The Staunch Book Prize is open to traditionally published, self-published and not-yet-published works[2] and awards £2,000 (funded by Lawless).


PETER LOVESEY FIRST CRIME NOVEL CONTEST

The Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest winner for 2020 has been named in a press release.

  • Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor

The winning manuscript was selected from more than two hundred entrants by a panel of Soho Press editors and the famed mystery novelist Peter Lovesey. The winner will be published in Spring 2022 by Soho Crime.

The contest, held to commemorate Lovesey’s 50th anniversary as a mystery writer, was announced at the 2019 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Dallas. Mr. Lovesey and the judges also recognized two honorable mentions: Catherine Hendricks’s “Hardways” and Dan Wever’s “The Prince of Thieves.”


LITTLE, BROWN UEA CRIME FICTION AWARD 2020

The winner of the 2020 Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award has also been announced.

  • No Country for Girls by Emma Styles

[Thanks to Cora Buhlert for the stories.]

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