The Mystery Writers of America named Jane Langton, William Link and Peter Lovesey as 2018 Grand Masters, which represents "the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality." They will be honored at the 72nd annual Edgar Awards Banquet in New York City on April 26.
The Raven Award for "outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing" will be presented to the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan., and to Kristopher Zgorski, founder of the crime fiction book review blog, BOLO Books.
Danny Caine, owner of the Raven Book Store, said: "I'm humbled and amazed to receive a Raven Award. Along with the Raven's staff, past and present, I'm delighted to join the company of such great bookstores, organizations, and people that have won the Raven in years past. Much credit belongs to previous Raven owners Pat Kehde, Mary Lou Wright and Heidi Raak who did so much to build the store's mystery community. Thanks so much to the MWA for the award, which, aside from being a huge honor, has a pretty great name."
The Ellery Queen Award for "outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry" will be given to Robert Pépin, a translator, editor and publisher of some of the most important authors of the past century.
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Alys Conran won the main English-language prize at the Wales Book of the Year awards for Pigeon. He had taken the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award before moving on to win the overall prize. Category winners receive £1,000 (about $1,320), while the overall winners in English and Welsh language are given an additional £3,000 (about $3,965).
The other category winners were John Freeman's What Possessed Me (Roland Mathias Poetry Award) and Peter Lord's The Tradition (Creative Nonfiction Award).
Judge Jonathan Edwards said: "This year's winning books are a real celebration of just how exciting, vibrant and diverse literature in Wales currently is. These writers are great talents who have succeeded in proving that Wales is a world-class contributor to literature." See the complete list of winners here.
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To see the complete list of the winners of the 61 categories of the 2017 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, click here.