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Mystery Awards
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The Anthony Awards. The Edgars. Grand Master awards. In today's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss different mystery awards and whether readers pay attention to them.
Discussed and mentioned
Agatha Awards (presented at Malice Domestic)
Anthony Awards (presented at Bouchercon)
Lefty Awards (presented at Left Coast Crime)
Silver Falchion Awards (presented at Killer Nashville)
McCavity Awards (presented by Mystery Readers International)
Barry Awards (presented by Deadly Pleasures)
Crime Fiction Lover Awards (presented by Crime Fiction Lover)
Ned Kelly Awards (presented by Australian Crime Writers Association)
International Thriller Awards (presented at ThillerFest)
Shamus Awards (presented by Private Eye Writers of America)
Awards of Excellence (presented by the Canadian Crime Writers Association)
Please Join Us (2023) Catherine McKenzie
The Drowning Woman (2023) Robyn Harding
Edgar Awards (presented by the Mystery Writers of America)
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/mystery-awards/
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Transcript
Introduction to Mystery Awards Season
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. It's awards season in the mystery world.
00:00:25
Speaker
It sure is. And there are so many awards that celebrate mystery and crime writing. Some have very specific criteria and others are open to a broader submission list.
00:00:39
Speaker
So let's slide into our glamorous attire and talk about some of those awards. Oh, that sounds fun. i haven't had a reason to wear a fancy dress in a long time, Sarah.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think I might put on some, well, I don't have a lot of fancy jewelry, but I'll ah'll put on some nice earrings.
Exploring Conference Awards
00:01:02
Speaker
Sounds great. So when I look at the different types of awards, there's awards that are presented and selected at conferences. There's awards that are selected by various writers associations.
00:01:19
Speaker
And then there's also awards that are selected or presented by different publications that celebrate the mystery genre. And so I thought we could talk a little bit about each of those awards different categories.
00:01:33
Speaker
So starting with the conference awards, ah there's a few that I wanted to mention. um you may be familiar with the Agatha Awards, which celebrate traditional mystery books that are published in the United States.
00:01:47
Speaker
And those are presented by Malice Domestic, which is a conference that takes place annually in Maryland, which is just outside of Washington, D.C. And, um, as I mentioned, these awards celebrate what we would consider to be traditional mystery books. So nothing too thrilling, nothing too gory, just good old mystery.
00:02:13
Speaker
Another conference award, the Anthony Awards, are presented at BoucherCon. And BoucherCon is a conference that moves around ah this year in 2025. It's going to be in New Orleans, and that's in September. And it looks like the conference kind of, as it moves around yeah the continent, it also moves, sometimes it's in August, September, it'll be in October in 2026.
00:02:40
Speaker
And these awards are presented, the Anthony Awards are presented at the conference, and the winners are selected by the attendees at the conference. And it's a similar setup for the Lefty Awards, which are presented at Left Coast Crime, which is another conference that moves around each year and is typically on the western half of North America. I know it's happened here in Canada. It's happened in the States. I think this year it's in Denver.
00:03:09
Speaker
And so that's that, as I mentioned, is is selected by attendees at the conference. And then finally, the Silver Falchian Award is presented at Killer Nashville, which is another conference.
00:03:23
Speaker
This one is held in August, as the name implies, always in Nashville. And this award is selected by a panel of of jurors, so not selected by the conference attendees.
00:03:38
Speaker
I just want to say that I'm really glad that you're breaking these down like this because I think as a reader for years, I've heard these names, but I don't necessarily know you know which organization gives which prize and what they're for and everything. So i I'm really enjoying this. This is some a topic I really haven't known that much about.
00:04:01
Speaker
um i ah especially like the idea of the conference attendees being the ones to choose the winner because I feel like that's, it feels like a jury of your peers, right?
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, I like that idea, too. um That, you know, and i I don't know how it works. If in advance of going to the conference, you're kind of told who the different um shortlisted titles are, and, you know, you then have an opportunity to read them, or, you know, I don't know what that what that judging process is. But I do like that idea that um you go to the event and and make the selection there.
Reader and Writers Association Awards
00:04:45
Speaker
So the next set of awards that I'll talk about are the Readers Association or readers like the Mystery Publication Awards. And um there are several, but I'll just highlight a few. um so the Macavity Awards are awarded by Mystery Readers International members. And Mystery Readers International is the largest mystery fan organization in the world. And they have a um publication that I think is issued quarterly.
00:05:17
Speaker
The Barry Awards are selected by members of Deadly Pleasures, which ah is an online publication that celebrates miss the mystery genre. And then ah Crime Fiction Lover Awards are selected by readers of Crime Fiction Lover. It's an online selection process, but there's also ah selections that are made by editors of the publication. So for each of the categories, they have the and reader choice and the editor choice versions.
00:05:53
Speaker
And then one of our favorite publications, Crime Reads, has best of lists that they publish. So it's not a formal awards program, but I thought it was worth mentioning because that's another source for readers to know find what are some of the best the best books of the year. Mm-hmm.
00:06:18
Speaker
And then finally, the Writers Association Awards. And some of these are the like big awards that almost everybody would be familiar with, um like the Daggers, the Edgar Awards.
00:06:33
Speaker
So the um Australian Crime Writers Association, their awards are called the Ned Kelly Awards. And so Ned Kelly was an Australian outlaw.
00:06:45
Speaker
And they have a ah selection of awards under that name. The International Thriller Writers have the Thriller Awards that actually, I believe, are announced at um Thriller Fest, the conference that's associated with that. So it's kind of a hybrid of what I was mentioning before, the Conference Awards and and Writers Association Awards.
00:07:11
Speaker
um And Private Eye Writers of America, this was a new organization for me i hadn't come across before, but they celebrate um private eye sleuths or um private detective sleuths, so someone who's not employed by a a government police agency, um and they have the Seamus Awards.
00:07:36
Speaker
Then we have the Crime Writers of Canada who celebrate Canadian crime writing. So almost all of the award categories are for people who either are Canadian or reside in Canada.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I just want to mention ah couple of things about these awards. So they are now called the um Crime Writing Awards of Excellence.
Crime Writers of Canada and Grand Master Awards
00:07:58
Speaker
But until relatively recently, they were called the Arthur Ellis Awards.
00:08:02
Speaker
And Arthur Ellis was the name that was given to the person who had the role of hangman in Canada. But because of the associations with hanging, the decision was to change the name to the um Awards of Excellence.
00:08:17
Speaker
ah The other thing I wanted to mention about these awards is several of the books and authors that we've spoken about have been recognized by the Crime Writers of Canada. So the most recent What Would You Do book that we have discussed, Please Join Us, was nominated for the Best Crime Novel in 2023.
00:08:35
Speaker
And The Drowning Woman, which was one of our What Would You Do books in an earlier season, was nominated for the same award, the Best Crime Novel in 2024.
00:08:46
Speaker
Vicki Delaney has won several awards and she was one of our first guests on Clued in Mystery. And in 2024, she was actually nominated for two books in the Best Traditional Mystery category.
00:09:00
Speaker
And Daniel Calla, who was one of our guests last year, was nominated um for one of his books. and i don't have it in front of me right now, but um and that was in 2022.
00:09:12
Speaker
So just a little shout out to our our authors and books that we've that we've talked about.
00:09:20
Speaker
The Crime Writers Association recognizes British authors and presents the Dagger Awards annually. And the Mystery Writers of America presents the Edgar Awards.
00:09:33
Speaker
And the Crime Writers of Canada, Crime Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America also recognize people who've made significant contributions to the crime genre and present them with Grand Master Awards. And I think for all three of the um organizations, that's what the title is, is the Grand Master.
Impact of Awards on Reading and Careers
00:09:58
Speaker
And that is how, Brooke, you and I have been selecting our modern greats to profile that series of episodes. um And there are so many amazing authors for us to choose from.
00:10:15
Speaker
I mean, we could just do seasons and seasons of episodes if we were just going to go through those lists. um So, and and I think maybe that's worth mentioning that we do turn to the awards lists to select some of the topics for our, um for our episodes.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. And definitely, as you mentioned, the authors, like, but I will say that by and large, I don't necessarily look at awards list to choose books that I read. What about you? How do you feel about choosing titles to read just, you know, for pleasure? Yeah, I i think I agree. it's it I always look to see who's been recognized, but um it's not necessarily where I go, you know, when I'm saying, okay, for some reason, i don't have any other books on my TBR list.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. Where am I going to find my next read? i don't turn to the to the awards lists. But that said, there are some fantastic titles that are recognized.
00:11:26
Speaker
Right. And you know that these books have been vetted by other very, um you know, serious mystery fans. So I think that typically it's going to be a great place, any of these, whether it's a conference award or, um you know, a writer award, whatever, that it's, they're probably going to be really great picks.
00:11:50
Speaker
And I should give some credit to the website Stop You're Killing Me um for some of the information that I just shared about these awards. ah That website Stop You're Killing Me is a great index of mysteries if you're looking for...
00:12:06
Speaker
a specific type of mystery, say, set in a specific location, or you wanted to read, you know, a mystery featuring a coffee shop, they've got they've they've itemized ah several mysteries that way. So if you weren't going to be looking at an awards list for your next read, then, you know, that website is ah is a great source.
00:12:30
Speaker
I was looking into you know what it does for an author's career if they were to win one of these awards. and ah Certainly, there's different. you know if If you become a grandmaster, you already have quite a career, right? But you know let's let's just say one of the conference awards. And the agreement was mostly that, yes, it really might punch up the sales of that book, but more than anything, it's sort of, um, publicity and like almost brand recognition and mostly helps for like future contracts, uh,
00:13:05
Speaker
in traditional publishing, um maybe kind of gets your, your traction for future book sales, but overall might not do a lot. It's just one thing in building a career. It's, it's not that somebody wins one of these awards and is suddenly boosted into, you know, fame and fortune.
00:13:25
Speaker
When I look at authors who say haven't been recognized at awards, there are several who I think have written fabulous books and, you know, for whatever reason, either they haven't been submitted as potential contenders for the awards or the, um you know,
00:13:47
Speaker
selection committee just hasn't, um hasn't agreed with me in terms of how, you know, fabulous I think the books are. So people can have a very successful career without ever being recognized by these awards.
Judging Process and Publishing Changes
00:14:02
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's a great point, Sarah. For some of the larger awards, i um you know you mentioned that at the conferences, sometimes the attendees are the judges. ah You and i have been invited. we We've done some reading for, um it was a conference award and that was really fun. But I looked at what it takes to be a judge for some of the more prestigious um readers' awards or writers' awards.
00:14:29
Speaker
And um it was interesting that a lot of them don't have an actual application. ah You are chosen for your expertise in the mystery fiction field.
00:14:40
Speaker
ah This was specifically about the Edgars, I should say. um and You know, it I guess it begs the question of is there some handpicking? Is there a little bit of a click?
00:14:53
Speaker
um It's just interesting to think about that there are probably some controversies behind some of these awards as well, as we see in what the Oscars, the Emmys, music awards.
00:15:07
Speaker
I don't think that mystery fiction awards are probably immune from that. I agree. I'm sure there's controversy that we never hear about.
00:15:17
Speaker
yeah they're probably not immune to that. um ah Same thing that that we see you with, because the Academy Awards are much higher profile. We hear about that.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yes.
00:15:31
Speaker
So i I found it interesting that you can win a Dagger or a Ned Kelly Award with a self-published book, but the Edgars still ah only consider traditionally published books. And I wonder if there'll ever be a time that that that that changes or if kind of that stigma against self-published books will remain for for a while longer.
00:15:57
Speaker
I imagine that it will eventually shift for the Edgars as well. I think um some of the other awards programs have changed.
00:16:09
Speaker
recently made that change. I read recently of ah some traditionally published authors whose contracts had been canceled. And if I was one of them, I would be looking at just doing it myself and publishing independently.
00:16:23
Speaker
um you know, I think they will probably do quite well because they already have a following and, and a readership. hmm.
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah, the industry has changed so much over the past five to 10 years. And that is the case with having some of the um authors who have previously been traditionally published entering into independent publishing. That's going to change the landscape even more.
00:16:52
Speaker
Agreed.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:16:54
Speaker
Well, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing this. As I said at the top, this is a topic that I have not known a lot about. And so it really is helpful to ah kind of categorize the awards this way and learn more about them.
00:17:09
Speaker
This has been lots of fun to to learn about. I also didn't know much about this until I started researching for today's episode.
00:17:17
Speaker
And listeners, we hope that you gained a little bit more knowledge about the mystery space today as well. And, you know, let us know. Are awards something that you look at when you're choosing your next read? with We'd love to know.
00:17:29
Speaker
But for today, thank you for listening to Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen.
00:17:42
Speaker
Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a ri review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website at cluedinmystery.com to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, or to join our paid membership, The Clued in Cartel.
00:17:59
Speaker
We're on social media at Clued in Mystery.