Crime Fiction Festivals: A Few Thoughts

A brief post, today, because deadlines are looming for three writing projects and two reviewing tasks.

But I’m also planning a trip, and working out how to be in Stirling for Bloody Scotland in the middle of September.

As with most large events held in small-ish cities, finding accommodation is the tricky part, so I’m booking ahead and keeping my fingers crossed that there will be intriguing events. This seems a safe assumption, because the program each year–including the online COVID year, which was wonderful–has been magnificent. Kudos to all the Tartan Noir and police procedural novelists from Scotland (including but not limited to Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Denise Mina) who have put a relatively small country, albeit one with a storied and bloody history, on the crime fiction map.

Part of the work I’ll be doing in the fall is thinking through how Canadian crime fiction diverges from both Tartan and Nordic Noir traditions, which requires a bit of travel.

And I’m hoping to explore the archival resources for a project I’ve been contemplating: a critical biography of P.D. James, author of just about the least personally informative memoir I’ve ever read. We learn about the distinguished Baroness’s luncheon, social, and professional engagements, but it is a very British autobiography: her late husband, her parents, and her daughters are all mentioned only in passing. It’s a wonderful book, but it keeps her emotional life very private. So it’s possible that the existing archival material has been culled, in a similar spirit of reticence, or is embargoed. It’s hard to tell from the Finding Aids. But I’m especially keen to see the drafts for her book about detective fiction, and I’m anticipating the Bodleian with great pleasure.

I’m sorry to be too late in the year for Harrogate, and the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Festival, held each year in July. I’ll also miss the annual crime fiction weekend at Oxford’s St. Hilda’s College. But I will be present and accounted for in my classes, which my students mostly appreciate, and there’s much to do here.

The biggest Canada/U.S. crime fiction festival is, of course, the annual Bouchercon, named for mystery writer Anthony Boucher. I’d hoped to attend the San Diego one (and was grateful for a scholarship that would cover registration fees and part of the cost of the stay, in exchange for volunteer shifts), but my UBC teaching start didn’t permit it. So I’m looking forward to Calgary in 2026, and to making up for my shiftlessness (literally) by doing some volunteer stints there. Before Calgary, there’s this September’s event in New Orleans, a city I’d love to see . . . oh, someday.

A few other notable events, to wrap up:

Here on the west coast, a big one is Left Coast Crime. The annual event has just wrapped up in Denver; next year, it will be in San Francisco, so I’m hoping that Canada-U.S. relations will have warmed, by then.

In my Sisters in Crime writing classes and groups, Malice Domestic is very popular (and my sense is that it’s rather female-dominated, and the cozy genre tends to be). It’s also more fan-oriented, as Bouchercon is, at least in part.

And finally, Canadian writing conferences for mystery devotees:

The big one is now held in Toronto each year, hosted by the International Festival of Authors, and it’s titled MOTIVE. Last year’s program looked terrific. Some day, when I’m not teaching in person in June.

The fall has a non-mystery specific Surrey International Writers’ Conference that typically includes several crime fiction events, and this is much more a writers’ conference than a fan one. A couple of my friends go annually and have created communities of mutual beta-readers that they find sustain their writing practice.

My two cents: the big events, like Bouchercon, are well-suited to those of us who enjoy eavesdropping on a conversation held over whiskey between Peter Robinson and Ian Rankin (one of my highlights, from decades ago) or hearing Sara Paretsky describe the family history behind her decision to incorporate more Jewish and Shoah context into her V.I. Warshawski novels. The big names come, and they speak and sign books But these are not very writer-focused, at least for emerging writers. For that, smaller conferences, including those with a day on pitching and craft, seem like better value to me.

And Bloody Scotland, to its credit, provides both streams: writers’ development events and contests, which help showcase new talent, and Big Names who take the stage and wow the audience with their anecdotes. (If you’ve never seen Val McDermid live, you’re missing out.)