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Rescheduled: Body in the Library: readings and 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards launch
July 9, 2021 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
$10 – $15
Rescheduled due to Covid restrictions: This year, the Scarlet Stiletto Awards offer $11,910 in prize money for the best crime or mystery short stories. Since 2012, the Melbourne Athenaeum Library has sponsored the ‘Body in the Library’ Award, offering a $1250 prize to the winner and $750 to the runner-up. This partnership has seen the number of entries grow each year, clearly a prize worth killing for.
The ‘Body in the Library’ Award honours Agatha Christie and her pioneering 1942 Miss Marple novel of the same name. In the Foreword, Christie describes ‘the body in the library’ as a cliché of detective fiction and her novel consciously (and ironically) reworks the genre. Winning stories continue this grand tradition. Senior Librarian Fiona Malcolm, who convenes the MAL Crime Fiction Book Club, will read the foreword to Agatha Christie’s book.
Blanche Clark, winner of the 2019 Scarlet Stiletto Award, and also the ‘Body in the Library’ Award, will launch the 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards and host celebratory readings of winning ‘Body in the Library’ stories. Blanche is former book editor of the Herald Sun.
Jane Clifton, Susanna Lobez and Julia Gardiner will read:
- ‘Deadly Ernestine’ (2018) by Fin J Ross (Vic) (Note: much of this story is set in the Melbourne Athenaeum Library!)
- ‘At Length I Would be Avenged’ (2019) by Blanche Clark (Vic)
- ’The Irony of Silence’ (2020) by Kristin Murdock (SA)
Doors open at 5.30pm and entry includes a glass of wine or sparkling water. Readings start at 6pm.
Books on sale courtesy of the Sun Bookshop. 10% discount for Sisters in Crime members.
If you want to enter this year’s competition, please go the entry form plus general guidelines (Terms and Conditions, FAQs and category definitions) – please make sure you read the FAQs.
Scarlet Stiletto 2021 entry_FAQs
Scarlet Stiletto 2021 entry_FAQs_printer friendly
Click HERE for more info about the awards.
Tickets
$15
$10 concession / members of the Melbourne Athenaeum Library and Sisters in Crime
Seating is limited so please book here by Friday 9 July, 3pm
Venue
The Melbourne Athenaeum Library
Level 1
188 Collins Street
Melbourne
Enquiries
03 9650 3100