Scarlet Stiletto Award for Short Stories

The award has attracted over 2000 entries with so far 16 winners of the coveted trophy, a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a mount.  

The winners come from all walks of life – they’re variously librarians, editors, teachers, union officials, journalists, public servants, psychologists, investigators, exercise instructors, mothers and retirees, with a few managing to write full-time.

Amazingly, four women:  Cate Kennedy, Christina Lee, Janis Spehr and Roxxy Bent, have won 1st prize twice and become judges under the Sisters in Crime rule of ‘two strikes and you’re out’.”

Cate Kennedy won the first Scarlet Stiletto Award for women's crime writing in 1994 and learnt an important lesson. After labouring on her entry, she knocked off a second story for fun, ''just to make sure I didn't go away thinking, 'God, that was like the dentist, never again.' '' It was the second story that won; the first was commended. ''If it was enjoyable to write, it was probably going to be enjoyable to read, and vice versa,'' said the judges.

Overall winners and winners of the various categories, including Tara Moss (now Australia’s bestselling crime author), Cate Kennedy, Angela Savage, Josephine Pennicott, Alex Palmer, Liz Filleul, Margaret Bevege, Patricia Bernard, Bronwen Blake, Jo McGahey and Cheryl Jorgensen, have since had novels published.

In the last few years, fashionista Sally Browne has become the shoes’ patron.  She has offered an on-going supply of scarlet stilettos which she’s been photographed wearing all over the world, including the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro.

Scribe publishing intends to publish a collection of winning Scarlet Stiletto stories next year in time for Sisters in Crime’s 20th anniversary, the She Kilda Melbourne 2011 Women’s Crime (Writing) Convention, provisional date 21-23 October 2011. This follows Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut (Mira, 2007), a collection of 26 winning stories from the first 13 years of the Scarlet competition.

The 17th Scarlet Stiletto Awards close on 31 August 2010 with a record $4750 in prizes on offer.

Presenters of the Scarlet Stiletto Awards have included actors Sigrid Thornton, Catherine McClements, Noni Hazlehurst, and Val Lehman and writers Leigh Redhead, Kerry Greenwood and Malla Nunn.

CATEGORIES & PRIZES

HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS 1st Prize: $750 plus the coveted Scarlet Stiletto Trophy donated by Sally Browne

• KILL CITY 2nd Prize: $400

• READINGS 3rd Prize: $300 (Voucher)

• ALLEN & UNWIN Young Writers Award: $400

• The Olvar Wood Late Starters Award (50+) $1200 three-month mentorship through Olvar Wood Writers Retreat

• THE KERRY GREENWOOD Malice Domestic Award: $500

• THE CATE KENNEDY Award for Best New Talent: $350

• THE DOROTHY PORTER Award for Innovation: $300

• BENN’S BOOKS Best Investigative Award: $200

• SCRIPTWORKS Great Film Idea Award: $200

• PULP FICTION Funniest Crime Award: $150 (Voucher)