Each year just before the biggest awards in Mystery-- the Edgar Awards-- are announced, Molly Odintz, the Managing Editor of CrimeReads conducts a series of conversations with Edgar Award nominees to talk about the state of the genre at that moment.
First, let me remind you of my post about this year's Edgar Awards when the nominees were announced here. From that post you can look into all previous winners and more.
Second, here is the announcement of the award winners via PW.
Okay, now back to Odintz and her pieces on CrimeReads.
The State the Mystery, Part 1: Craft Lessons and Favorite Reads. From the introduction:
For the past 7 years, I’ve had the privilege of putting together a roundtable discussion between the nominees for the Edgar and other MWA awards, with predictably spectacular (and somewhat long-winded) results, necessitating the result of publishing the collated responses in two parts. This year had the most contributors yet, and may be my favorite conversation thus far (I know, I say that every year).
In part one of the roundtable discussion, I asked authors to discuss craft, reading habits, old favorites, and the evolution of genre. In part two, running tomorrow, you’ll find a discussion more focused on issues: social, political, financial, and as of the recent rise of AI, technological. 29 nominees and special award winners contributed to the following discussion, for an interview that reads as a snapshot of an entire community at an inflection point in history.
The State the Mystery, Part 2: Issues Concerns and the Long Road Ahead. From the introduction:
Welcome to part two of our roundtable discussion featuring nominees for the Edgar Awards (as well as other special categories awarded during the same ceremony). 29 writers weighed in on the most pressing issues facing the genre today, and the place of crime writing in our current political landscape (perfectly timed for May Day!).
Check out part one of the discussion, published yesterday, for thoughts on craft, tropes, and favorite reads. And good luck to everyone at the ceremony tonight, as well as a big thank you to Mystery Writers of America for collaborating with us here at CrimeReads for the seventh year in a row.
Begin with the 2025 posts because there is no place better for you to understand the state of Mystery-- one of our most popular genres at the library-- than at this moment. This is a conversation with the authors who were nominated for its highest award.
Then click here to bring up past year's conversations as well. The best thing about current trends is not identifying what they are at the moment (although that is extremely useful for us as we help readers), rather, it is in watching today's trends as they have evolved from past trends. I love doing this as you learn a lot about readers while watching the trends change over time.
But I want to broaden this discussion today and end with general advice about staying up to date on all genres, and this is advice I have been sharing for years: the best time of year to get yourself up to date on the most important authors, trends, and issues of any genre, is when said genre's awards are being handed out.
But this is not for the obvious reason of the awards themselves.
Rather, because it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of our work, we often forget to schedule time to step back and assess the bigger picture. Use the timing of awards announcements as your reminder that it is time for you to take a day to poke around in the genre in question and make sure you are aware of the most popular and critically acclaimed authors while also looking through its best resources. Just take a spin around the genre during its moment in the spotlight.
Since the awards are given out once a year, this guarantees that you will take a moment to look at the big picture of each genre at least once a year. And there you have it! You are up to date without feeling overburdened.
No comments:
Post a Comment