A Good Turn for “Bad Country”

Native Texan C.B. McKenzie has been named as the winner of this year’s Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel. That announcement was made in association with last weekend’s 2013 Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

McKenzie, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and currently teaches Rhetoric at the City University of New York, earned this commendation for his novel, Bad Country. As part of his reward, McKenzie will receive a contract for publication with Thomas Dunne Books/Minotaur Books and a $10,000 advance.

The Hillerman Prize is named, of course, in honor of the late New Mexico author and creator of the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries. It’s presented annually to “the best debut mystery set in the [American] Southwest.” Previous recipients were Andrew Hunt’s City of Saints, Tricia Fields’ The Territory, Roy Chaney’s The Ragged End of Nowhere, and Christine Barber’s The Replacement Child.

If you’d like to submit a novel for the 2014 Hillerman Prize, do so by June 1 of next year. Rules and guidelines can be found here.

Also during the Hillerman conference, radio personality Mary-Charlotte Domandi was given the 2013 Leaphorn Award for her work in promoting authors and reading.