Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Awards 2014 winners announced

Monday, 24 November 2014 Books+Publishing

The Scarlet Stiletto Awards, presented by Sisters in Crime to recognise short crime stories written by Australian women, were announced at a ceremony in Melbourne on 21 November.

Perth writer Judith Bridge won the HarperCollins First Prize, worth $1500, for her short story ‘Amy’s Sandal’.

Other winners at this year’s awards were Julianne Negri, who won the Pantera Press Second Prize ($1000) for ‘#hitandrun’; Fin J Ross, who won the Sun Bookshop Third Prize ($500) for ‘What’s a Girl to Do?’; and Natalie Conyer, who won the Athenaeum Library ‘Body in the Library’ Award ($1000) for ‘The Book Club’. The runner-up award ($500) in this category went to another piece of fiction by Ross called ‘The VOTOS Solution’.

Frances Sutherland won the Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award ($750) for ‘Death on a Triple Score’; 11-year-old Bridey Carmel won the Allen & Unwin Young Writer’s Award ($500) for ‘Dorothy Gale P.I.’; and Melanie Myers won the Best Story with a Political Edge for ‘Savage Women’, which will be published in the December issue of Arena magazine along with the runner-up story in this category, Angela Savage’s ‘The Elephant Thief’.

Suzanne Frankham won the Catherine Leppert Award for Best Environmental Theme ($500) for ‘The Island’; Richenda Rudman won the Clan Destine Press Award for Cross Genre ($400) for ‘The Sixth Sense’; and the Liz Navratil Award for Best Story with a Disabled Protagonist, was jointly awarded to Vicky Daddo for ‘Prussian Blue’ and Anna Snoekstra for ‘Out Came the Sun’. Both writers will receive the full cash prize of $250.

The Scriptworks Great Film Idea Award ($200) went to Sandi Wallace for ‘Ball and Chain’. Katie Mills won Benn’s Books Best Investigative Award for ‘Statuary Offence’, a crime story about missing statues. The Cate Kennedy Award for Best New Talent was not presented this year.

Sisters in Crime’s national co-convenor and event organiser Michaela Lobb said: ‘The Scarlet Stilettos have spawned a vast criminal enterprise but Australian men should sleep more soundly as a result. Without this outlet for so much murderous intent, more would end up sleeping with the fishes or meeting some other dire fate.’

At the ceremony, Sisters in Crime launched an ebook of the winning stories, Scarlet Stiletto Short Stories: 2014 (Clan Destine Press). As previously reported by Books+Publishing, this year’s awards were presented by Australian actor Marta Dusseldorp. To see the highly commended authors, click here.

Category: Local news