ROTORUA NOIR: New Zealand's First Crime Writing Festival

New Zealand's First Crime Writing Festival: Rotorua Noir

January 26th and 27th 2019 
THE SHAMBLES THEATRE, 2-8 Amohau Street, Rotorua, New Zealand

Rotorua Noir is the first crime writing festival to be held in New Zealand and will coincide with the tenth year of the prestigious Ngaio Marsh Award. It will bring together for the first time the cream of the New Zealand crime writing scene along with some serious talent from overseas. It is time to celebrate New Zealand crime writing and the people behind the books we all love so much.

The festival will be an outstanding opportunity for members of the public to meet their favorite authors and hear what goes on during the creative process that takes an idea from its inception to the page.

There will be over three days of creative writing workshops for aspiring authors, two days of panel discussions featuring crime writers from as far away as Scotland, Iceland and Finland as well as some fantastic one-on-one interviews. ​  There will be a short story competition for local writers to show us what they can do with the winner getting to read from their work at the festival.

And remember, it's Summer in January in New Zealand!

Read More Here.

Cartoon of the Day: The Witness

NGAIO MARSH AWARD LONGLIST: Kiwi Crime

The Longlist for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel: The Ngaio Marsh Award represents the very best in Kiwi Crime.

Marlborough Man by Alan Carter (Fremantle Press)
Baby by Annaleese Jochems (Vitoria University Press)
See You In September by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
The Lost Taonga by Edmund Bohan (Lucano)
The Easter Make Believers by Finn Bell
The Only Secret Left To Keep by Katherine Hayton
Tess by Kirsten McDougall (Victoria University Press)
The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackell (Mary Egan Publishing)
A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
The Hidden Room by Stella Duffy (Virago)

The finalists for both the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories will be announced in July. The finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced at WORD Christchurch (August 29-September 2). 

Craig Sisterson, organizer of the Ngaio Marsh Award, is a lapsed Lawyer, and major Crime Fiction Fan and Writer who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He also blogs at Crime Watch.