Finishing Touches

French blogger Xavier Lechard finishes off his weeklong series of posts about the Edgar Allan Poe Awards with a two-fer, writing today about both the 1990s and the 2000s. Summarizing his findings in regard to Edgar’s history, and looking ahead a bit, he remarks:

The Eighties and the Nineties were marked on one hand by older laureates with no pressing need for an(other) award, and better showings of female writers (especially in the latter decade) on the other. The 2000s see a relative rejuvenating and renewal of the average winner, which is welcome, and an almost complete eradication of women, which is much less so. S.J. Rozan (Winter and Night) is the sole female winner of the decade, taking us back to the jolly good days of the Sixties and Seventies. Let us hope the next decade will be kinder to the better half of mankind, though I wouldn’t bet on this.

Nor would I bet that Edgar in the 2010s will make a greater place to foreign offerings. Ian Rankin (Resurrection Men) and Jason Goodwin (The Janissary Tree) are the only non-American, continuing the trend towards insularization in the Eighties. A repeat of the 60’s British Invasion is unlikely to occur any time, though Karin Alvtegen’s nomination (and Stieg Larsson’s much-talked[-about] snubbing) might indicate a Scandinavian invasion is possible.

Lechard’s analysis of Edgar’s history is well worth reading. If you’ve missed any installments, here are links to all of those pieces: introduction; the 1950s; the 1960s; the 1970s; the 1980s; the 1990s and the 2000s.