The Danger Awards 2023

Now in their sixth year, the Danger Awards continue to honour books featuring Australia as a setting for stories about crime and justice. At BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival in November 2023, three awards will be presented: one for crime fiction, one for crime non-fiction and thanks to the generous sponsorship of OverDrive Australia, for the first time a People’s Choice award will be presented covering both categories 

The winners each received $1000 In prize money, a Danger Award trophy were invited to speak at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival 2023. 

Best crime fiction

  • The Tilt (Chris Hammer, A&U

Best crime fiction debut

  • Black River (Matthew Spencer, A&U

Best true crime

  • The Boy in the Dress (Jonathan Butler, Affirm) 

People’s choice

  • An Uncommon Hangman (Rachel Franks, NewSouth).
Danger Awards 2023

Sponsor of the People’s Choice Award

OverDrive Logo

Danger Awards 2023
Entry Form

ENTERING THE DANGER AWARDS

Entries must be received by BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival no later than 5pm on June 10th 2023. Entries should be submitted via the online entry form.

All books must have been first published between 1 January 2022- 31 December 2022.

ENTRY FEE

An entry fee of $20 (excluding GST) is payable for EACH nomination.

Payments are to be made by direct deposit. Details below. Acknowledgment will be sent on receipt. If preferred please contact BAD Sydney here for an invoice before payment.

Entries will only be accepted once payment has been made. 

Name of Author
Name of Publisher Contact
Publisher Address

Account Details For Deposit:
Account Name: BAD Sydney Ltd
Account number: 289882
BSB: 032 152

Conditions of Entry

All books must be primarily in the English language.

Applicants will receive an email confirmation on submission of the online entry form.

Books will not be returned to applicants.

Breach of the conditions of entry will render an entry invalid.

Authors whose books are nominated must be living Australian citizens or permanent residents.

Books published overseas are eligible if the author is an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

The nominated book must be the author’s own work.

If a nominee dies or ceases to hold permanent resident status after their book has been entered, the judges will not consider the work for an award. If, however, the judges recommend an award to an eligible nominee and that nominee dies before the award is presented, the board may, at its discretion, pay the prize money to the nominee.

All nominated books must be publicly available: books should have ISBNs and must be available for commercial sale. Books compiled by an editor and consisting principally of contributions from several writers are not eligible for entry.

Self-published books may be nominated, but unpublished manuscripts will not be considered.

Material that has previously been published only in anthologies, literary journals, newspapers or equivalent online platforms is deemed to be new work and may be entered in the Awards if it is published in book form within the eligible period.

Revised editions of books will not be considered unless the revisions are so substantial that the book is, in effect, a new work. It is the nominator’s responsibility to identify the new material and to include one copy of the original edition as part of the nomination.

The board expects that winning and shortlisted entrants for the Danger Awards will be available to undertake activities to promote these Awards up to and including the next year the Awards are presented.

Activities may include media interviews (face-to-face or via electronic means), photographs or personal appearances at functions promoting these Awards, author events at the State Library, and, where possible, through the NSW public library network.

Books nominated for the Danger Awards must have been first published between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022.

Nominations may be made by authors or by their authorised representative e.g. agent or publisher.

People or organisations nominating books on behalf of an author are deemed to be nominating with the author’s consent. It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure that the author’s consent is obtained before nominating the book. The author’s personal contact details must be included on the entry form, including direct phone and email details (see privacy statement below).

It is the responsibility of the nominator and the nominee/s to ensure that the information provided is correct. Incomplete or incorrect nominations may render an entry invalid.

There is no limit to the number of titles that may be entered by a nominator or author provided the works entered meet all other conditions of entry.

Nominations must be made via the online entry form (a separate entry form must be completed for each nomination).

Each nomination must be accompanied by three copies of the book in print form.

The Judging Process

The Awards honour outstanding crime fiction and crime non-fiction that tell outstanding stories that shed light on crime and justice issues in Australia.

The Awards will be judged by three board members of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival.

The judging panel may request additional information on nominations from applicants at this stage of the process and may call in books not already entered.

The judging panel will select a shortlist (containing no more than six titles per category) and prepare judges’ comments. There will be no notification for unsuccessful applicants

Entries close: 10 June 2023
Shortlist announced: 7 September 2023
People’s Choice Voting Opens: 8 September 2023
People’s Choice Voting Closes: 6 October 2023


Winner announced: 3 November 2023

The Nomination Checklist

  1. Read the guidelines, including the Privacy Notice.
  2. Complete the online application form.
  3. Pay the application fee.
  4. Send three (3) copies of your work/s to:

BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival, PO Box 755, Milson’s Point, NSW 1565

Enquiries

Please email any enquiries to Catherine du Peloux Menagé, contextcpm@bigpond.com

Privacy Commitment

The Danger Awards are committed to protecting the privacy of personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The Privacy Act details the Australian Privacy Principles that set minimum standards for how government agencies and private sector organisations may collect, use, disclose, store, provide access to and correct Personal Information.

The Danger Awards are committed to complying with those Australian Privacy Principles.

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