FYI
----- Original Message -----
From: Paula Duggan
Hi Everyone,
I don’t know where the time has gone this year, it has really flown and the
closing date for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards is fast approaching. Remember 31st
August.
Go to the Sisters in Crime website and look up the categories for this year as
there are a few new ones which may be of interest and encourage you to brush
the dust off the keyboard.
Once again we are asking for donations for the Liz Navratil Award.
In 2014, Sisters in Crime Queensland established the ‘Liz Navratil Award’ for
Best Story with a Disabled Protagonist in the annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Crime Short Story Competition to honour fellow member Liz Navratil who was
killed in 2013 whilst crossing the road in her electric wheelchair.
Janelle Colquhoun, Convenor of Sisters in Crime Queensland Chapter, said,
“members want to continue honouring our lovely sister and friend Liz, but we
either need to find a sponsor or organise some fund-raisers, or keep asking
members each year to consider making a donation, no matter how small. We have
offered a prize of $400 each year since 2014 and hope to continue to do so.
For those who didn't have the pleasure of knowing this amazing woman here is a
very short background.
Liz Navratil was born with cerebral palsy, and what others called
insurmountable obstacles. However, Liz spent her life in the arts – on stage
performing in plays, doing her one-woman stand-up comedy and cabarets,
directing and mentoring, writing stage and radio plays, chairing boards and
using, as she said , ‘her highly individual work for the transformational power
of performance’.
Sisters in Crime Queensland feel her loss keenly, not only because she was a
great friend and highly-valued member, but also because we will never know the
end of her crime novel. Did her severely disabled protagonist get away with
murdering her cruel and evil carer? Liz had a wicked grin and a sense of
humour, so she probably did!
We are sponsoring a Scarlet Stiletto Award in her name for a story with a
disabled protagonist, both as a tribute to Liz and to encourage writers to
think about disability.
Two time Scarlet Stiletto winner and Sisters in Crime Queensland member
Christina Lee said, “Personally I am strongly committed to the rights of
disabled people, in particular their right to be considered as fully autonomous
human beings with the same range of positive and negative qualities as everyone
else.
We hope others will want to keep the memory of Liz Navratil alive and also
contribute to continue offering this award as part of the Scarlet Stilettos, a
short story crime writing competition, run by Sisters in Crime Australia.
Stories must have a crime or mystery theme, a female protagonist and a female
author.
Please consider donating to this award, and send ALL donations to our new bank
account:
Acc name Sisters in Crime QLD
BSB 638-010
Acc # 14724960
*Please mark all donations as Liz Award
Kind Regards
Paula Duggan
Freelance Journalist/Writer
0423473827
pauladuggan56@xxxxxxxxx
