Louise Penny nabs crime-writing prize
Novelist Louise Penny and veteran journalist Stevie Cameron are among the latest winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards, Canada's literary prize celebrating crime-writing excellence.
The 2011 winners were unveiled at a banquet in Victoria Thursday evening, the 28th edition of the awards held by the Crime Writers of Canada.
Quebec author Penny, a past Arthur Ellis-winner for 2006's Still Life, snagged the best novel award for Bury Your Dead — the latest in her series following world-weary Quebec City detective Armand Gamache.
Toronto-based Cameron's On the Farm — her second book about B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton — was named winner in the non-fiction category. It had previously been nominated for the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize.
The other category winners include:
- Short story: So Much in Common, by Mary Jane Maffini, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
- Juvenile/young adult: The Worst Thing She Ever Did, by Alice Kuipers.
- French: Dans le quartier des agités, by Jacques Côté.
- First novel: The Debba, by Avner Mandleman.
John Jeneroux picked up the Unhanged Arthur Award, which recognizes the best unpublished first crime novel, for his manuscript Better Off Dead.
Open to Canadian writers, the awards are named for Arthur Ellis, the pseudonym used by Canada's former official hangman.