The Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel

Is the Great Canadian Crime Novel tucked carefully away in a drawer or even languishing under your bed?

Well, here's your chance to pull out that manuscript and enter it in our newly created Arthur Ellis Award category – the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (the Unhanged Arthur).

The competition is open to Canadian citizens, no matter where they are living, and to writers, regardless of nationality, who have Permanent Resident status in Canada, and who have never had a novel of any kind published commercially.

Contestants should have a completed manuscript and should submit the opening chapter(s) – no more than 5,000 words – plus a 500-word synopsis of the rest of the novel. "Crime novel" is defined as crime, detective, espionage, mystery, suspense, or thriller, and can be set in any time period and crime-related sub-genre.

From these initial submissions, up to ten authors will be asked by the judges to submit their completed manuscripts. A shortlist will be selected from these completed manuscripts. The winner will receive a special Arthur Ellis Award along with cash from McArthur & Company. In addition, the winner’s completed manuscript will be read and critiqued by publisher Kim McArthur, who will have the right of first refusal to publish the novel.

All shortlisted authors will received a summary of the judges’ comments about their work. All judges are professionals working in the Canadian publishing industry.

Deadline: about Oct 15

Note: The Crime Writers’ of Canada haven’t updated the contest page from last year. But that’s good – the less organized they are, the fewer entries they receive and the better your chances of winning this prestigious contest that comes with a good shot at getting your first novel published. Two years ago, the Unhanged Arthur was won by John Jeneroux, who’s been a regular at my workshops (see here.) This year, maybe you can be the one modestly accepting the award.

More about the Unhanged Arthur and last year’s rules here.

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.