CRIMEFEST, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, is offering a bursary (ed. note: “scholarship” in American English) for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend its festival next May.
The bursary will cover the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance.
Eligible authors must have published at least one English language book in traditional print by a British commercial publisher.
Donna Moore, Co-host of CRIMEFEST, said: “At CrimeFest, we pride ourselves as being one of the most democratic events in our genre. As a convention, published authors don’t have to be invited to take part – there are no gatekeepers or committees dictating who is in and who isn’t. As such, CrimeFest is a really exciting event for the genre and a natural hotbed for diverse talent. We’re aware however that more needs to be done to ensure festivals and conventions actively support writers of colour.”
A 2020 study, Rethinking Diversity in Publishing by the University of London found writers of colour still don’t receive the same industry access, creative freedoms or economic value as their white counterparts. It also found each stage of the publishing process generally amplified the voices of white and middle-class people.
The winning entry for the bursary will be chosen in collaboration with author Vaseem Khan, the author of two award-winning crime series set in India – the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House crime novels set in 1950s Bombay; Ayo Onatade, who works with Justices at the Supreme Court, and is a well-known blogger and CWA Red Herring award-winning freelance crime fiction critic; as well as the CrimeFest organisers.
Hosted in Bristol, CRIMEFEST is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days. Dates for next year’s Bristol CRIMEFEST are 12-15 May, 2022.
CRIMEFEST was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. It was established in 2008. It follows the egalitarian format of most US conventions, making it open to all commercially published authors and readers alike.
The deadline to apply is 30 January 2022.
Visit www.crimefest.com/bursary for more details on how to apply.
