The Northern Dagger?

The Crime Writers of Canada has announced the creation of a new Arthur Ellis Award. The 24th annual awards ceremony in Toronto this coming June will be the first time the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished Mystery Novel will be presented.

“The award is modeled on the [British Crime Writers’ Association’s] Debut Dagger,” a recent announcement stated. “We are just finalizing the details, but essentially, you submit the first 10,000 words of your unpublished mystery manuscript (rounded up or down to the nearest chapter) along with a synopsis of the book. If you are one of the 10 people to make the first-stage cut, you will be asked to submit your completed manuscript. This long-list will be pared down to a five-person short-list; the winner will be announced at the Arthur Ellis Awards dinner.”

The Arthur Ellis Awards were established in 1983 and are presented in seven categories “for works in the crime genre published for the first time in the previous year by authors living in Canada, regardless of their nationality, or by Canadian writers living outside of Canada.”

Past winners of the Arthur have included Rosemary Aubert, Giles Blunt, Gail Bowen, William Deverell, James Dubro, Howard Engel, Laurence Gough, Ann Lamontagne, Andrew Pyper, Kathy Reichs, John Lawrence Reynolds, Peter Robinson, Carol Shields, Norbert Spehner, Eric Wright, and L.R. Wright.

The Crime Writers of Canada Web site is here.