Martha Grimes to Receive the 2012 MWA Grand Master Award

The Mystery Writers of America announced today that crime novelist Martha Grimes would honored with the 2012 Grand Master Award. This award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality.

"I was, for once, speechless," said Grimes, when notified of being named Grand Master.

Martha Grimes began as a poet, but then turned to mysteries. She sent her first novel — The Man with a Load of Mischief — "over the transom" to several publishers. In 1979 an editor at Little, Brown found it in the "slush pile" and offered to publish it. The book, which introduced Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury, became the first in a long-running series that currently numbers twenty-two titles.

Also announced today are the recipients of the Ellery Queen Award and the Raven Award.

The 2012 Ellery Queen Award will be given to Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post/Hearst Media News Group. The Ellery Queen award is given to editors or publishers who have distinguished themselves by their generous and wide-ranging support of the genre.

One mystery bookstore and one outstanding individual supporting the mystery book genre will be honored with the 2012 Raven Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. M is for Mystery in San Mateo, CA and Molly Weston of Meritorious Mysteries will be honored with the 2012 Raven Awards.

The above awards plus the winners of the Edgar Awards will be presented at The Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Thursday, April 26th, 2012.

(Source: Press release.)