Awards Notices Keep Rolling In

The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation has announced the list of six finalists for its 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. This commendation takes its name, of course, from the best-selling Zambian-born author of historical/adventure novels such as Shout at the Devil (1968), The Burning Shore (1985), and Elephant Song (1991). Here are this year’s contestants:

• The Deep Blue Between, by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Pushkin Press)
• City of Vengeance, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)
• Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal, by Niall Edworthy (Universe)
• Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday)
• Total Blackout, by Alex Shaw (HQ)
• Rogue, by James Swallow (Bonnier)

The winner, to be made known during an online ceremony on September 8, will receive £10,000 in prize money.

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Also in the news this week are the names of four authors vying to win the 2021 Margery Allingham Short Story Mystery Competition. “The [judges’] mission,” according to press materials, “is to find the best unpublished short mystery—one that fits into legendary crime writer Margery’s definition of what makes a great story: ‘The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.’”

The shortlisted works are:

• “For Laura Hope,” by Antony M. Brown
• “All the Little Boxes,” by Chris Curran
• “Heartbridge Homicides,” by Camilla Macpherson
• “As Dead as Dodo,” by Hazell Ward

The victor is set to be announced on July 1.