I picked them up, was taken by the backcover blurbs, and was surprised to read they were set in New Zealand: Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave and The Ringmaster by Vanda Symon. ![]() ![]() By chance, a couple of crime novels on the recently returned shelf caught my eye. When I returned to New Zealand in October 2008, I popped into the Papatoetoe Library my first weekend to keep feeding my reading habit. It's embarrassing to look back on that discussion now, because NZ does have a greater crime writing history than I knew about at that time, but perhaps the fact I was a keen reader who still wasn't aware of that was telling too? Or at least we didn't have many ongoing series or crime writers putting out multiple books. I met some really cool Canadian crime writers, including the great William Deverell, and had a really good chat with him afterwards about recognising and celebrating quality writing, and how the crime genre was much deeper nowadays than the stereotype of old-fashioned mysteries, potboilers, and airport thrillers.Īs an aside, I spoke with the Canadians about the state of New Zealand crime writing (they were curious), and even lamented that other than Dame Ngaio and Paul Thomas's series, and one-offs from the likes of Simon Snow, Nigel Latta, and Michael Laws, we didn't seem to have as many crime writers as you'd expect for a country that has some really great writers (Oscar-nominated screenwriters, Man Booker listees, fabulous children's authors, great longform journalists, etc). Then when I was in Canada I went along to an Arthur Ellis Awards event at the Vancouver Public Library (a crime author panel where the finalists for their national crime writing awards were also announced). ![]() The hostels tended to have plenty of 'popular fiction' (crime, romance, sci-fi, action thrillers etc), and I gravitated towards the crime novels, having loved mystery tales since I was a kid devouring The Hardy Boys adventures when I was at Richmond Primary School in Nelson. I'd started reading a lot while backpacking through Latin America for six months, picking up dozens of novels from hostel book exchanges and the like to pass the time on 24-hour bus rides in Argentina and Chile. It was a culmination of a lot of little things. Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Non Fiction (2017 is the first year of this award)Ĭraig Sisterson How did the idea for the Ngaio Marsh Awards come to you?.Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel (first awarded 2016).See our listing of previous winners and finalists:.Like the Ngaio Marsh Awards on Facebook. ![]() $80 per table (up to 5 players) by emailing Past and present Ngaio judges - Mike Ripley, Ayo Onatade, and Craig Sisterson. Saturday, 28 October, 5.30pm Ngaio Marsh Awards 7pm Great Lit Quiz To celebrate NZ Bookshop Day, put together a team of book enthusiasts for a quiz of crime novels and other genres! All tickets gain entry to the invitation-only Ngaio Marsh Awards cocktail party, where the winners will be announced. Hosted by crime writers Paul Cleave and Vanda Symon. This year, you can join in as Scorpio Books and WORD Christchurch present The Great Lit Quiz & Ngaio Marsh Awards! Read our interview with Craig where he talks Kiwi crime, #yeahnoir, the Ngaio Marsh Awards, and libraries. He's the force behind the Ngaio Marsh Awards celebrating New Zealand crime writing, starting the Awards in 2010 and now serving as the judging convenor for the prizes. Craig Sisterson is a writer and reviewer, and a fan of great crime writing.
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