Agatha Award

Agatha Christie

The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as 'hard-boiled.'"[1] At an annual convention in Washington, D.C.,[2] the Agatha Awards are handed out by Malice Domestic Ltd, in six categories: Best Novel; Best First Mystery; Best Historical Novel; Best Short Story; Best Non-Fiction; Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery. Additionally, in some years the Poirot Award is presented to honor individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the mystery genre, but it is not an annual award.

Early meetings of the Malice Domestic Committee occurred in fall 1987, with the first convention held on April 21–23, 1989, in Silver Spring, MD.[3][4] Malice Domestic Ltd was incorporated in 1992. It is governed by a volunteer board of directors.[5]

  1. ^ "Agatha Awards". malicedomestic.org. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  2. ^ Malice Domestic Archived 2015-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Morman, Mary (1998). "In the Beginning". Ten Years of Malice (Domestic). Bethesda, MD: Malice Domestic Ltd.: 8.
  4. ^ "Malice History at a Glance". Ten Years of Malice (Domestic). Bethesda, MD: Malice Domestic Ltd.: 10 1998.
  5. ^ "Malice Domestic Ltd: Agatha Awards". Malicedomestic.org. Archived from the original on 2017-01-21. Retrieved 2012-06-05.