Agatha Awards | Writing Articles

By: eWritingtoday.com

Named in Honor of Agatha Christie

Agatha Awards will be given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2006 (January 1 through December 31) in hardcover, as paperback originals, or e-published by an e-publishing firm. They will be awarded in five categories:

• Best Novel
• Best First Mystery
• Best Short Story
• Best Non-Fiction
• Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery

The Agatha Awards honor the traditional mystery—-books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is generally characterized by mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence; usually featuring an amateur detective, they have a confined setting and characters who know one another. Novels and stories featuring police officers and private detectives may qualify for the Agatha, but materials generally classified as “hard boiled” are not appropriate.

Suggestions for the Best First Mystery award must be for the first mystery novel by the author. If the author has written novels in any of the subgenres of the mystery field, such as romantic suspense, this author would not be eligible in the Best First Mystery category. However, this would not preclude the author from being eligible in the Best Novel category.

Short stories published within anthologies may be submitted for the Best Short Story award, but these stories must be published for the first time in 2006, not reprinted from other sources.

In the Best Non-Fiction award category, the Agatha Committee will consider any biography, essay collection, bibliography, or other reference or nonfiction book that is primarily centered on the Malice theme, a Malice-eligible author, or the detective(s) of a Malice-eligible series. True crime works are not appropriate for this award.

Novels for the Best Children's/Young Adult category should be aimed at audiences 18 and younger.

Publisher Information

The deadline for submissions from publishers is December 31, 2006. Early submissions are encouraged to allow candidates for nomination the greatest amount of time for consideration. Qualified selections from either spring or winter lists for 2006 may be submitted. Although it is helpful for the Committee to receive actual books, if sending these submissions is not feasible, please send Agatha Chair Linda Smith Rutledge a list of authors, their book titles, and any press release/review copy. The Committee will make every effort to see that eligible books from such a list receive full consideration.

Fan Nomination Information

The Agatha Award is a fan-generated award; Malice Domestic convention registrants and Friends of Malice will receive nomination ballots in January 2007. Ballots may be returned by mail, by fax, or by e-mail to an address that will be published in January 2007. The Agatha Committee tallies the votes and reviews the nominated works for eligibility to determine the list of final nominees (the five titles from each category that receive the most votes). The Agatha Committee reserves the right to remove from nomination any book that does not fit the requirements for the Agatha. The Committee will use submissions to verify publication date, author eligibility, and other basic eligibility criteria.

The list of nominees will be published in The Usual Suspects and posted on the Malice Web site. The final vote is by secret ballot by registered convention attendees at the Malice Domestic XIX convention in May 2007. The Agatha Awards are bestowed at the convention banquet.

For further inquiries and questions, please contact Agatha Chair, Louise Leftwich, at Agathas@malicedomestic.org