Last year was spectacular for crime fiction conventions. Left Coast Crime in Tuscon, Arizona, was like living in a dream state. Bouchercon in San Diego was a blast.
With the entire year yawning out before me, I decided to cruise through the net and see what mystery conventions are scheduled.
Left Coast Crime #34. April 11-14. Bellevue, Washington. Left Coast Crime 2024: Seattle Shakedown Guests of Honor include Megan Abbott, Robert Dugoni and Fan Guest of Honor Fran Fuller. Wanda M. Morris will be the toastmaster! It’s so easy to get to. Take a plane to Seattle and rent a car or Uber over to Bellevue. Hope to see you there!
Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. May 1. New York City. Edgar® Awards Info & Database | MWA Presents The Edgar® Awards (edgarawards.com)
Malice Domestic 31. April 26-28. Bethesda, Maryland. For more information, check out its Facebook page: Malice Domestic Updates | When will registration be open for Malice Domestic 2024 | Facebook
ThrillerFest XVII. May 28-June 1. New York City. http://thrillerfest.com/. Guests include Steph Cha and Ruth Ware. ThrillerMasters are Tess Gerritsen and Dennis Lehane.
Sleuthfest 2024. September 26-29. St. Petersburg, Florida. http://sleuthfest.com/.
Killer Nashville. August 22-25. Nashville, Tennessee. https://killernashville.com/. Karen Dionne is the guest of honor. This conference is geared towards writing craft and how to find an agent.
Bouchercon 2024. August 28-September 1. Nashville, Tennessee. HOME | Nashville 2024 (bouchercon2024.com) Guests of honor include J.T. Ellison, Brad Thor, Heather Graham, Harlan Coben, Rachel Howzel Hall, Anthony Horowitz, V.M. Burns, Mick Herron, Kelli Stanley, and Clay Stafford.
Are there any conventions I missed? Which ones are you planning to attend?
Probably my favorite conference is Creatures, Crimes and Creativity:
https://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com. Best bang for the buck because almost all of the meals are included. And the atmosphere is what every conference should aspire to.
I’ll be at Malice, B’chon, and, of course, C3.
Don’t forget CrimeBake outside of Boston in November.
Right now, I’m registered for Bouchercon.
I looked for Crimebake’s website and couldn’t find it. Maybe we could do an update midsummer for the last year conventions, when they have their particulars posted.
Look under New England Crimebake.
I was planning LCC Seattle but seeing it would take me 3 flights and 19+ hours of travel, I thought the better of it. I loved LCC Vancouver. I am planning on going to Killer Nashville, first time, but have not yet registered.
Travel gets to me too. Nashville and DC are both all day trips one way.
That’s a great list! Very useful. I’m always scrambling to figure out what is when.
Glad to be of help!
Good list, Keenan. This year because I don’t have a new full-length novel out, I’m restricting my travels to Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon. See you there??? There are loads of smaller, local conferences that are well worth attending as well.
I don’t plan on traveling to conventions this year. We’ll see how it goes. If anyone wants to add their local conferences to the list, that’d be awesome!
Thanks for the list, Keenan! I’ll be at Left Coast Crime, Malice, and Bouchercon–yippee!
Most excellent!
Hi Keenan –
Looking forward to LCC! I’m also attending the Public Safety Writers Association conference in Las Vegas, July 11-14, 2024.
It’s a smaller conference focusing on those writing about folks in the public safety field (police, fire, FBI, etc.). One of my favorite conferences to attend. policewriter.com
That sounds like a great conference!
Nice list. LLC sounds terrific and Bellevue is fabulous. But I probably won’t go. Just dreaming.
When last I visited, Bellevue was just a suburb of Seattle that was morphing into a shopping mecca. I used to take the girls there for back-to-school shopping. The prices were so much lower than in Alaska, that the savings would pay for the trip. That was 20+ years ago. Seattle is interesting, though.
Great list, Keenan. I usually go to Malice and Crime Bake, but I’m not sure this year. One of my favorites is the Writers Police Academy. I learned so much at that. https://writerspoliceacademy.com/about-the-wpa/
Good one! I hope to make it to the Writers Police Academy one day.
I don’t know as this counts as a “conference”, but the 1st Annual Ashland Mystery Fest Weekend last year was a blast, and this year it’s going to be even better! All the venues in Ashland know understand how many mystery fans there are out there and are upping their game. There will be author panels–last year’s had some doozies!–, writing workshops, mystery dinners and Pub Crawls. Mystery wine tastings! The opening reception was a blast with authors handing out clues to the weekend long Solve the Mystery and Scavenger hunt (catered by the gorgeous Ashland Springs Hotel), various food events, and then of course there is the beautiful town of Ashland Oregon itself that will be in the hight of her Autumn glory. I met and made so many new friends that are lovers and writers of mysteries. NO this is not a “serious” conference, but it was a fabulous fun 4 days, and well worth the journey. It was inspired, created, organized and guided by author (and close friend) Ellie Alexander. See you there!
Thanks, Sharon! That sounds like a blast! I looked it up. Ashland Oregon is very easy to get to for many of us. I couldn’t find a website. If they set one up, would you add a link to this comment? I bet Guppies would love to hear about it too!
p.s. Ellie is currently putting together the list of authors she will invite to be panel members, workshop leaders, etc. and if anyone is interested, I’d be more than happy to pass names along, or you can just contact her through her web page!
Excellent! Would love to hear more about it!
Absolutely!! The head organizers are Ellie, Travel Ashland and Ashland City Council. The website usually pops up in March. Several of the hotels and B&B’s offer discounts for Festival goers, as do restaurants, and all that info will be on the website! I will let this page know asap when I find out!
Looking forward to Left Coast Crime here in Seattle. Come and introduce yourselves!
LCC is always a great conference. Stan and Lucinda are brilliant.
I’m registered to attend Malice Domestic this year! I’d love to eventually go to Left Coast Crime one year.
LCC is about the same size as Malice with perhaps an emphasis on a wider range of subgenres. It’s a blast.
I’m in the UK where Theakston’s Crime Festival in Harrogate is the really big one. I haven’t made that yet. Still havering about this year. But I am booked for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s conference in Brighton and CRIMEfest in Bristol, which is the other big event for crime writers and readers in the UK.
Liz, Lucky you! I hear those are great conferences. Don’t Liz Nugent and Val McDermid frequently attend?
They do. And the keynote speaker at the Crime Writers’ dinner is Ellie Griffiths, one of my favourite authors.
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