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Observer 53 YEARS EST. 1969
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SISTERS IN CRIME
SISTERS IN CRIME Australia will belatedly celebrate its 30th birthday on Saturday, April 23, at 6pm at St Kilda's new Victorian Pride Centre.
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Hosted by Sue Turnbull, Sisters in Crime’s Ambassador-at-large, academic and crime fiction reviewer, the line-up for the event features Carmel Shute, Angela Savage, Emma Viskic, Sulari Gentill, and Vikki Petraitis plus videos from Sara Paretsky, various other authors and TV crime show stars. Jane Clifton will lead the crowd in singing ‘Sisters Are Writing It for Themselves’ (words by novelist Angela Savage and short-story doyen, Cate Kennedy). “It sounds like we’re a group of women dedicated to robbing banks but we’re just a wellbehaved literary society dedicated to crime – and lots of it – on the page and screen,” says Carmel Shute, a co-founder and a continuing national convenor since 1991. “If it weren’t for this outlet, a lot of Australian men might have cause to be nervous.” “Sisters in Crime Australia took its inspiration from the American organisation founded by crime writer, Sara Paretsky, in 1986 at the Bouchercon, the premier US crime writers’ convention. “She, and other women, rightly pointed out that women weren’t getting a fair deal when it came to getting published, promoted and reviewed.” Shute said that in the eighties she and other crime readers were swept away by the explosion in women’s crime writing driven by Paretsky, Sue Grafton, and Val McDermid and, in Australia by Kerry Greenwood and her now world-famous Miss Fisher Murder Mystery series. “Sisters in Crime’s origins were rather accidental. During a visit to North America, I decided to interview five women crime writers and produced a program for RN’s Coming Out Show, which went to air on Good Friday, 1991. “Luckily, back then, you didn’t have to be a professional broadcaster to put a show to air. I was actually the ABC union organiser in Melbourne. “During program we offered a free feminist crime book bibliography – which naturally I
● Carmel Shute, co-founder of Sisters in Crime Australia with her Ned Kelly LifeTime Achievement Award presented in 2016. hadn’t done – and the ABC was inundated with a significant role in promoting Australian letters and phone calls (it was pre-internet),” women's crime writing, without receiving organizational funding. she said. “But our byword has always been fun. We “It was enough to inspire a group of passionate women crime readers in Melbourne, and are hanging out for a live event where we can on September 22, 1991, we launched our fledg- truly celebrate our achievements over three deing organisation at the Melbourne Feminist cades. Zoom doesn’t do it when it comes to eatBook Fortnight with a debate entitled ‘Femi- ing, drinking, and being merry,” she said. Sisters in Crime’s 30th Anniversary Party: nist Crime Fiction: Confronting the Hardboiled Head On’. Greenwood was one of the Saturday April 23, 6pm for 6.30pm start. Victorian Pride Centre Theatrette, 79-81 Fitzroy Street, stars,” she said. Sisters in Crime Australia has now grown to St Kilda, Melbourne. Bookings essential by Frian organisation of 500 members – and 3500 day April 33, 5pm. Men – or ‘brothers-in-law’ followers – with chapters in Brisbane, Sydney, are welcome. Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne, which runs a busy calendar of events. Pre-COVID, the Melbourne Chapter held live events most months featuring authors from all over Australia, or overseas. For the past two years, Zoom events have attracted a national and increasingly international audience. Your business can have this prominence in all 38 Since 1991, Sisters in Crime has partnered areas of The Local Paper for just $99 per week with a huge number of organisations to present if you order a 45-issue pre-paid package. events, including libraries, bookshops, literary Limited offer. First-in basis. festivals, universities, the NGV, the Melbourne Ph 1800 231 311, Melbourne Museum, the Police Museum, the Victorian In0450 399 932 stitute of Forensic Medicine, the National Trust, editor@Melbourne and the RN Quiz Show. Observer.com.au Shute says that Sisters in Crime has played
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