The Mystery Writers of America has announced the recipients of its Grand Master and Ellery Queen awards, which will be presented at the 78th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, scheduled to be held May 1.
The board chose Katherine Hall Page and R.L. Stine as the 2024 Grand Masters, an award that acknowledges important contributions to the genre as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Michaela Hamilton of Kensington Publishing will receive the Ellery Queen Award, which honors outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.
MWA executive v-p Donna Andrews said that the two Grand Masters "have given so much to our genre--not just through their writing, but also through their generosity to other writers, their hard-working professionalism, and their boundless enthusiasm for the written word."
Ellery Queen Award winner Michaela Hamilton is executive editor at Kensington and editor in chief of Citadel. MWA said, "Her importance in the discovery of new writers and emphasis on publishing traditional mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels cannot be underestimated."
Andrews added: "Michaela Hamilton has worked with dozens of new and seasoned writers over the decades, not only making Kensington a powerhouse in the mystery and thriller field, but also giving genre lovers hundreds of books--and thousands of hours of reading pleasure."