Nearly $12k up for grabs in The Scarlet Stiletto Awards

The 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards are back and are bigger than ever. This award is for best crime and mystery short stories by Australian women and this year, there’s a prize pool of $11,910 up for grabs.

There are a staggering total of 15 awards, including two new awards, the Viliama Grakalic Art and Crime Award and the Booktopia Publisher Services Award for Best Environmental Mystery. There’s bound to be an award that suits your short story.

From the media release, the full list of awards and prizes are:

• Swinburne University Award: 1st Prize: $1500
• Simon & Schuster Award: 2nd Prize: $1000
• Sun Bookshop & Wild Dingo Award: 3rd Prize: $600
• Affirm Press Award for Best Young Writer (under 19): $500
• Monash University Award for Best Emerging Writer (19-25): $500
• Melbourne Athenaeum Library ‘Body in the Library’ Award: $1250 ($750 runner-up)
• Booktopia Publisher Services Award for Best Environmental Mystery: $750
• Clan Destine Press Award for Best Cross-genre Story: $750
• Every Cloud Award for Best Mystery with History Story: $750
• Kerry Greenwood Award for Best Malice Domestic Story: $750
• Viliama Grakalic Art and Crime Award: $750
• Writers Victoria Crime and Punishment Award: $660 (studio residency, Old Melbourne Gaol) for the Story with the Most Satisfying Retribution
• HQ Fiction Award for Best Thriller: $500
• ScriptWorks Award for a Great Film Idea: $500
• Liz Navratil Award for Best Story with a Disabled Protagonist Award: $400

Maximum length for entries is 5,000 words.

Entries close on 31 August 2021.

Crime does pay – crime writing that is. To find out more and to enter, visit the Sisters in Crime website.