Crime writers reveal award shortlists
Where would we be without crime? Better off as a society, no doubt, but much the poorer for reading choices.
Crime fiction has long occupied an oddly contradictory place on the North American literary stage: neglected when the time comes for handing out fancy accolades, but remarkably dependable when it comes to things like … well, like people actually buying and reading books.
At larger literary festivals it tends to be tokenized/limited to a themed panel event or two, but year after year, no matter the changing winds of the book industry, crime just keeps ticking along.
A writer like Hudson’s Trevor Ferguson, long one of the most respected literary figures in Canada and a person who can boast a substantial international readership in translation, routinely sells far more under his John Farrow crime nom de plume, to the point where what was once a sideline has all but taken over.
This is a state of affairs all the more perplexing for being geographically isolated. The crime versus “serious” divide has never much held sway in western and northern Europe — the French from Charles Baudelaire’s championing of Edgar Allan Poe up to Georges Simenon and beyond, and the Scandinavians, who have been punching above their weight since Henning Mankell touched off a wave that shows no sign of breaking.
At home, the Crime Writers of Canada and its annual multi-category Arthur Ellis Awards have long flown the flag.
The CWC will be out in force in Montreal on Thursday as writers Peter Kirby (a past Ellis winner), Michael Blair, Michael Kent, Jim Napier, Geri Newell, Christopher Huang and Hilary MacLeod announce the shortlists for this year’s Ellis Awards, read from their work, sign books and talk to readers.
“I’m very glad there’s a CWC and Arthur Ellis Awards, because there’s very little else for crime writers in this country,” said Linda Leith, whose Linda Leith Publishing has leaped to the forefront of the genre in Canada with a strong crime catalogue, led by Kirby and Blair.
“The number of times they get nominated for literary awards is vanishingly small — and when they are, it’s usually for a writer who is better known for writing what is considered to be more narrowly ‘literary.’ There’s an old-fashioned sniffy attitude toward genre fiction here and, more generally, toward the kind of fiction that so many people enjoy reading. Very elitist! The truth is, good crime fiction is every bit as good the fiction winning most of our literary prizes, and better than most.”
There have been recent signs of crime straying into broader pastures.
At last year’s QWF Awards, Liam Durcan’s The Measure of Darkness, not strictly a crime novel but with enough elements that it could pass as one in a dark alley, pulled off an upset win over Madeleine Thien’s big-selling Do Not Say We Have Nothing, while two of Thien’s fellow Man Booker nominees — Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen — were crime novels in all but official designation. The crumbling of the dividing walls is starting to feel inevitable.