More than 50 guests announced for Sisters in Crime’s 25th-anniversary convention

Sisters in Crime Australia will celebrate its 25th anniversary at a one-day convention at the St Kilda Town Hall in Melbourne on 19 November, with more than 50 guests appearing at panels, pitching sessions and other events across the day.

Guests at SheKilda3 include crime novelists, true-crime authors, screenwriters, lawyers, producers, publishers and scholars covering topics that include domestic noir, detectives with a difference, unlikely heroes, mystery with history, what true crime can teach about the law, crime on the screen, and romantic suspense.

Speed-pitching sessions with publishers, agents and producers will take place throughout the day. Publishers include Cate Blake from Penguin Random House, Lindy Cameron from Clan Destine Press, Helen Goltz from Atlas Productions, Angela Meyer from Echo Publishing and Jodie Webster from Allen & Unwin. Also participating are producers Fiona Eagger from Every Cloud Productions, Sue Maslin from Film Art Media and ‘script doctor’ Karin Altmann from ScriptWorks.

A ‘Great Debate’ will be held in the afternoon on the topic: ‘Dames vs dicks: dicks should stick to writing hardboiled and dames should stick to writing cozies’, which will be followed by a cocktail party and the presentation of the 23rd Scarlet Stiletto Awards for short stories.

On the 18 November, two workshops on writing YA crime and short stories will be followed by a discussion with Melina Marchetta and P D Martin.

Secretary and national co-convenor Carmel Shute said the convention will ‘lift intellectual debate about women’s crime writing of all persuasions’. ‘It will challenge the view, endemic in some quarters, that crime writing is suspect as mere “genre” writing and intrinsically inferior to capital L “Literature”,’ said Shute.

To view the program, click here.

Category: Local news