Mystery Writers of America

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Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
.

The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson

Clayton Rawson

Clayton Rawson was an United States mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies....
, Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an United States science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short story. He was particularly influential as an editor....
, Lawrence Treat

Lawrence Treat

Lawrence Arthur Goldstone , better known by his pseudonym, Lawrence Treat, was an United States mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as police procedurals....
, and Brett Halliday

Brett Halliday

Brett Halliday , primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American Mystery fiction, best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write....
.

It presents the Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film and theatre published or produced in the past year....
, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
, to writers every year. It also presents the Raven Award to non-writers who contribute to the mystery genre.

Grand Master Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America.

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Encyclopedia

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York

New York

Clayton Rawson

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an United States science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short story. He was particularly influential as an editor....
, Lawrence Treat

Lawrence Treat

Brett Halliday

Edgar Award

Edgar Allan Poe

Grand Master Award

The Grand Master Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. It recognizes lifetime achievement and consistent quality. (The award was presented irregularly through 1978; with the exception of 2009, it has been given to one writer annually since then.)

Year	Winner	Year	Winner	Year	Winner
1955	Agatha Christie Agatha Christie Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, Order of the British Empire , commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English people crime writer of novels, short stories and Play ....	1978	Daphne du Maurier Daphne du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning Order of the British Empire was an English author and playwright. Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca , which won the Best Picture Academy Award in 1941, Jamaica Inn , and her short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now....	1994	Lawrence Block Lawrence Block Lawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime fiction writer best known for two long-running New York city-set series, about the recovering alcoholic Private Investigator Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively....
1958	Vincent Starrett Vincent Starrett Vincent Starrett was an United States writer and newspaperman....		Dorothy B. Hughes Dorothy B. Hughes Dorothy B. Hughes was an United Statesn crime writer and literary critic. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse ....	1995	Mickey Spillane Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane , better known as Mickey Spillane, was an United States author of crime fiction, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer....
1959	Rex Stout Rex Stout Rex Todhunter Stout was an United States crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 to 1975 ....		Ngaio Marsh Ngaio Marsh Dame Ngaio Marsh British honours system , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a crime writer and theatre director from New Zealand. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900....	1996	Dick Francis Dick Francis Dick Francis CBE is a United Kingdom horse racing crime writer and retired jockey....
1961	Ellery Queen Ellery Queen File:Ellery Queen NYWTS.jpgEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write detective fiction....	1979	Aaron Marc Stein	1997	Ruth Rendell Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, Order of the British Empire, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an acclaimed England crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mystery....
1962	Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner was an United States lawyer and author of crime fiction, who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M....	1980	W. R. Burnett	1998	Barbara Mertz
1963	John Dickson Carr John Dickson Carr John Dickson Carr was an United States author of detective stories, who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn....	1981	Stanley Ellin Stanley Ellin Stanley Bernard Ellin was an United States mystery writer. Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He garnered a love for reading at a young age with an interest in works by the likes of Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Edgar Allan Poe....	1999	P.D. James
1964	George Harmon Coxe	1982	Julian Symons Julian Symons Julian Gustave Symons was a United Kingdom crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature....	2000	Mary Higgins Clark Mary Higgins Clark Mary Higgins Clark, n?e Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins , is an United Statesn author of psychological thriller. Each of her twenty-four books has been a bestseller in the United States and various Europe, and all of her novels remain in print as of 2007, with her debut suspense novel, Where Are The Children, in its seventy-fifth print...
1966	Georges Simenon Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgium writer who wrote in French language. He is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Jules Maigret....	1983	Margaret Millar Margaret Millar Margaret Ellis Millar was an American-Canadian mystery fiction and thriller fiction writer.Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto....	2001	Edward D. Hoch Edward D. Hoch Edward Dentinger Hoch was a prolific United States writer of detective fiction. Although he wrote several novels, he was primarily known for his vast short story output which, at the time of his death, was over 900....
1967	Baynard Kendrick Baynard Kendrick Baynard Hardwick Kendrick wrote whodunit mystery novels about Duncan Maclain, a blind private investigator who worked with his two German shepherds and his household of assistants to solve murder mysteries....	1984	John le Carré John le Carré John le Carr? is an English author of spy fiction, several of which have been adapted for film and television. He worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the secret service to devote himself to writing after the success of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold....	2002	Robert B. Parker Robert B. Parker Robert B. Parker is an acclaimed United States crime writer. His most famous works are the Spenser series, which achieved a far wider audience due to being dramatized as a television series, Spenser: For Hire, on the American Broadcasting Company network during the late 1980s....
1969	John Creasey John Creasey John Creasey was a prolific England crime writer, who published in excess of 600 novels under 28 different pseudonyms, creating along the way many characters who are now internationally famous....	1985	Dorothy Salisbury Davis Dorothy Salisbury Davis Dorothy Salisbury Davis is an United States crime fiction writer....	2003	Ira Levin Ira Levin Ira Levin was an United States author, dramatist and songwriter....
1970	James M. Cain James M. Cain James Mallahan Cain was an United States journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the hardboiled....	1986	Ed McBain Evan Hunter Evan Hunter was a prolific United States author and screenwriter. Though he was a successful and well-known writer using the Evan Hunter name , he was perhaps even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956....	2004	Joseph Wambaugh Joseph Wambaugh Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is an United States writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States....
1971	Mignon G. Eberhart Mignon G. Eberhart Mignon Good Eberhart was an USA author of mystery novels....	1987	Michael Gilbert Michael Gilbert Michael Francis Gilbert, , was a British writer of both fictional Mystery fiction and Thriller s who wrote as Michael Gilbert. He was a lawyer in London for many years and at one point had Raymond Chandler as his client....	2005	Marcia Muller Marcia Muller Marcia Muller is an United States author of fictional Mystery and Thriller novels.Muller has written 25 novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character....
1972	John D. MacDonald John D. MacDonald John Dann MacDonald was an American author.A prolific writer of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida, McDonald's best-known works include the popular and critically-acclaimed Travis McGee series, and his novel The Executioners, which was adapted into the film Cape Fear ....	1988	Phyllis A. Whitney Phyllis A. Whitney Phyllis Ayame Whitney was an United States mystery writer. Rare for her genre, she wrote mysteries for both the juvenile and the adult markets, many of which feature exotic locations....	2006	Stuart M. Kaminsky Stuart M. Kaminsky Stuart M. Kaminsky is an award-winning United States mystery writer. He is best known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private investigator in 1940s Hollywood, Los Angeles, California; Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector; and veteran Chicago, Illinois polic...
1973	Judson Philips	1989	Hillary Waugh Hillary Waugh Hillary Baldwin Waugh was a pioneering American Mystery fiction novelist. In 1989, Waugh was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America....	2007	Stephen King Stephen King Stephen Edwin King is an United States author of contemporary horror fiction, fantasy fiction and science fiction.Having sold an estimated List of bestselling fiction authors of his books, King is best known for his work in horror fiction, in which he demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the genre's history....
	Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, Order of the British Empire was a British filmmaker and film producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres....	1990	Helen McCloy Helen McCloy Helen McCloy , pseudonym Helen Clarkson, was an United States mystery writer, whose series character Dr. Basil Willing debuted in Dance of Death ....	2008	Bill Pronzini Bill Pronzini Bill Pronzini is a highly-regarded and very prolific United States writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthology, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on Mystery fiction, Western , and science fiction short story....
1974	Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald is the pseudonym of the United States-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar . He is best known for his highly acclaimed series of hardboiled novels set in southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer....	1991	Tony Hillerman Tony Hillerman Tony Hillerman was an award-winning United States author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels....	2009	James Lee Burke James Lee Burke 'James Lee Burke' is an United States author of mystery fiction, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues and Cimarron Rose , while the Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen; by Alec Baldwin in the film Heaven's Prisoners , and by Tommy Lee Jones in the film, ...
1975	Eric Ambler Eric Ambler Eric Clifford Ambler Order of the British Empire was an influential England author of spy novels ,who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda....	1992	Elmore Leonard Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard, Jr. is a popular and acclaimed United States novelist and screenwriter.His earliest published novels in the 1950s were western fictions, and Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, several of which have been adapted into successful motion pictures or TV movies....		Sue Grafton Sue Grafton Sue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary United States author of detective novels....
1976	Graham Greene Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour was an English writer best known as a novelist, but who also produced short stories, plays, screenplays, travel writing and criticism....	1993	Donald E. Westlake Donald E. Westlake Donald Edwin Westlake was an United States writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially Caper story with an occasional foray into science fiction....

Mystery Writers of America

Grand Master Award

See also

External links