Strand, Goldsboro Prizes Up for Grabs

As part of my effort to catch up with awards-related news, following my recent blogging hiatus, I should note that The Strand Magazine last week announced its nominations for the 2021 Strand Critics Awards. This is an annual judged competition, intended to recognize “excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing.” Winners will be declared in early September. Below are this year’s contenders.

Best Mystery Novel:
• Snow, by John Banville (Hanover Square Press)
• You Again, by Debra Jo Immergut (Ecco)
• Trouble Is What I Do, by Walter Mosley (Mulholland)
• The Missing American, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime)
• A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
• Survivor Song, by Paul Tremblay (Morrow)
• Confessions on the 7:45, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)

Best Debut Novel:
• Amnesty, by Aravind Adiga (Scribner)
• Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam (Ecco)
• When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
• Empire of Wild, by Cherie Dimaline (Morrow)
• A Burning, by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
• A Certain Hunger, by Chelsea G. Summers (Unnamed Press)
• Catherine House, by Elisabeth Thomas (Custom House)

In addition, The Strand will present this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards to Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Alexander McCall Smith. And Josh Stanton of Blackstone Publishing has been chosen to receive the 2021 Publisher of the Year Award.

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Finally, London-based Goldsboro Books has broadcast its register of a dozen works longlisted for the 2021 Glass Bell Award. “Now in its fifth year,” explains a news release, “the Glass Bell Award celebrates the best storytelling across contemporary fiction, regardless of genre. The 2021 longlist heralds a particularly strong year for debut novels: eight out of the twelve longlisted titles are first novels—including the bestselling sensation The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, both of which were nominated for the British Book Awards.”

Half of the nominees fall into the crime/mystery/thriller category, and are identified below with asterisks:

• The Sin Eater, by Megan Campisi (Mantle)
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)*
• The Girl With the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré (Sceptre)
• The Familiar Dark, by Amy Engel (Hodder & Stoughton)*
• The Court of Miracles, by Kester Grant (Harper Voyager)
• The First Sister, by Linden Lewis (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton (Viking)
• Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Viking)*
• Eight Detectives, by Alex Pavesi (Michael Joseph)*
• The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton (Bloomsbury Raven)*
• People of Abandoned Character, by Clare Whitfield (Head of Zeus)*

Expect to see a shortlist of candidates for this year’s award by August 5, with news of the winner coming on September 30.