THE DANGER AWARDS 2024

Danger Awards 2023

Now in their seventh 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 September 2024, four awards will be presented: one for best crime fiction, one for best crime fiction debut, one for crime non-fiction and thanks to the generous sponsorship of OverDrive Australia, for the second time a People’s Choice award will be presented covering all three categories.

For the successful crime writer, a strong sense of place has always been fundamental, whether it be the Sydney of Peter Corris, the Melbourne of Peter Temple, the regional and rural spaces of early colonial crime fiction or the growing body of work addressing the impact of invasion and indigenous dispossession. 

In addition to the Danger Prize trophy, each winner will receive $1000 In prize money and will be invited to speak at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival 2025.

Sponsor of the People’s Choice Award

OverDrive Logo

Danger Awards Shortlist 2024

The Danger Awards recognises books featuring Australia as a setting for stories about crime and  justice. Now in their seventh year, the awards have introduced a new category for Debut Fiction  authors to sit alongside the fiction and non-fiction categories. The new category has been created to  reflect both the quality and sheer number of debut crime fiction writers in Australia, and to support  emerging writers with the practical cachet that formal acknowledgement by their industry provides.  Crime writing remains one of the most popular book genres in Australia across both digital and  physical books. 

BAD Sydney Chair Sue Turnbull said “Australian crime fiction is currently surfing the popular wave.  Once again, the judges have been presented with an extraordinary array of talent, from compelling  true crime to an astonishing array of debut authors, and over fifty books entered for the Fiction  Award. Our selections reflect the sheer diversity of the crime genre from searing true crime to cosy  fiction, from the urban setting to the rural, featuring an array of central protagonists from the  neurodivergent to the underestimated tea lady. Australian crime writing has come into its own.” 

Past winners include two-time winner Chris Hammer, 2024 shortlisted author Margaret Hickey, Gary  Jubelin, John Ibrahim, Hedley Thomas and Tanya Bretherton. 

The winners will be announced during the year’s BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival, at the NSW  State Library, on the evening of Saturday 14th September.  

For the second year running readers will also be able to cast their vote for the People’s Choice  Award, brought to you by Libby, the library reading app from Overdrive. People’s Choice voting  closes September 4, and readers can cast their vote at badsydney.com. The winner will also receive  $1000 in prize money courtesy of Libby. 

 

THE SHORTLIST

VIOLET KELLY AND THE JADE OWL by Fiona Britton (Allen & Unwin)

HOW TO KILL A CLIENT by Joanna Jenkins (Allen & Unwin) 

ECHO LAKE by Joan Sauers (Allen & Unwin) 

JUDGEMENT DAY by Mali Waugh (Pan Macmillan) 

LENNY MARKS by Kerryn Mayne (Penguin Random House) 

DARK MODE by Ashley Kalagian Blunt (Ultimo)

THE HOUSE OF NOW AND THEN by Jo Dixon (HarperCollins) 

THE UNEARTHED by Lenny Bartulin (Allen & Unwin) 

BROKEN BAY by Margaret Hickey (Penguin Random House)  

MOLE CREEK by James Dunbar (Echo)  

THE TEA LADIES by Amanda Hampson (Penguin Random House)  

APT 303 by Kelli Hawkins (Harper Collins)  

THE WIREGRASS by Adrian Hyland (Ultimo Press)  

THE STRIP by Iain Ryan (Ultimo Press) 

EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT by Benjamin Stevenson (Penguin Random House) 

KILLER TRAITOR SPY by Tim Ayliffe (Simon and Schuster) 

RIPPER by Shelley Burr (Hachette)

O’LEARY OF THE UNDERWORLD by Kate Auty (Black Inc) 

KILLING FOR COUNTRY by David Marr (Black Inc) 

CROSSING THE LINE by Nick McKenzie (Hachette)  

NAKED CITY by John Silvester (Pan Macmillan)  

THE TEACHER’S PET by Hedley Thomas (Pan Macmillan)

Danger Awards 2024
Entry Form

ENTERING THE DANGER AWARDS

Entries must be received by BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival no later than 5pm on 13 May 2024. Entries should be submitted via the online entry form.

All books must have been first published between 1 January 2023- 31 December 2023.

Please note that to be eligible for the Debut Crime Fiction Award, books must be a first published work of fiction.

ENTRY FEE

An entry fee of $33 (including GST) is payable for EACH nomination. 

Payments are to be made on the Humanitix booking platform here. Click on Get Tickets to reach the payment page.  You will receive an order confirmation number which must be entered on the entry form.  Note that you can make one payment for multiple entries if you wish but the order confirmation number must be entered on each form.

Name of Author

Please tick for which prize the book is submitted for:

Name of Publisher Contact
Publisher Address

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 2023 and 31 December 2023. Nominations may be made by authors or by their authorised representative e.g. agent or publisher.

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 Danger Awards honour books featuring Australia as a setting for stories about crime and justice.

The prize will be judged by three current or past 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 open: 28 March 2024
Entries close: 13 May 2024
Shortlist announced: 30 July 2024
People’s Choice Voting Opens: 30 July 2024
People’s Choice Voting Closes: 2 September 2024

Winners announced: 14 September 2024

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,  Milsons Point, NSW 1565.

Enquiries

Please email any additional enquiries to Grace Kopsiaftis media@badsydney.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.

Be the first to find out…

ALL ABOUT CRIME