Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Promoting Diversity at CrimeFest

For the third year in a row, Britain’s CrimeFest “is offering a bursary [aka scholarship] for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend its festival next May,” according to a news release I received this morning. “The bursary will cover the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance.”

To be eligible, authors must have placed at least one English-language book with a traditional print publisher in the UK. “Nominees for the bursary,” it’s explained, “will be reviewed by Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Chair and author Vaseem Khan, and the freelance crime fiction critic and CWA judge, Ayo Onatade.”

The deadline for entering this competition is Thursday, November 30. For more information, please e-mail info@crimefest.com.

This year’s bursary winner was Elizabeth Chakrabarty, whose debut novel, Lessons in Love and Other Crimes, “was inspired by her own experience of a serious race hate crime in the workplace.” The 2022 recipient was Saima Mir, author of the novel Khan.

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