Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City.[1]

Edgar Allan Poe, MWA logo

The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.

It presents the Edgar Award, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe, to mystery or crime writers every year. It presents the Raven Award to non-writers, who contribute to the mystery genre. The category of Best Juvenile Mystery is also part of the Edgar Award, with such notable recipients as Barbara Brooks Wallace having won the honor twice, for The Twin in the Tavern in 1994 and Sparrows in the Scullery in 1998, and Tony Abbott for his novel The Postcard, which received critical accolades in 2009.

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 up to 1978; from 1979 to 2008, it was given to one writer each year. Since 2009, as many as three authors have been honored annually.)

In 2018, the Mystery Writers of America announced that it would honor best-selling author and former prosecutor Linda Fairstein with one of its Grand Master Awards for literary achievement. But two days after controversy erupted in connection with her alleged role in the Central Park jogger case, the organization withdrew the honor.[2]

YearRecipient(s)YearRecipient(s)YearRecipient(s)YearRecipient(s)
1955Agatha Christie1978Daphne du Maurier
Dorothy B. Hughes
Ngaio Marsh		1994Lawrence Block2011Sara Paretsky
1958Vincent Starrett1995Mickey Spillane2012Martha Grimes
1959Rex Stout1996Dick Francis2013Ken Follett
Margaret Maron
1961Ellery Queen1979Aaron Marc Stein1997Ruth Rendell
1962Erle Stanley Gardner1980W. R. Burnett1998Elizabeth Peters2014[3]Carolyn Hart
Robert Crais
1963John Dickson Carr1981Stanley Ellin1999P. D. James
1964George Harmon Coxe1982Julian Symons2000Mary Higgins Clark2015Lois Duncan
James Ellroy
1966Georges Simenon1983Margaret Millar2001Edward D. Hoch
1967Baynard Kendrick1984John le Carré2002Robert B. Parker2016Walter Mosley
1969John Creasey1985Dorothy Salisbury Davis2003Ira Levin2017Max Allan Collins
Ellen Hart
1970James M. Cain1986Ed McBain2004Joseph Wambaugh
1971Mignon G. Eberhart1987Michael Gilbert2005Marcia Muller2018Jane Langton
William Link
Peter Lovesey
1972John D. MacDonald1988Phyllis A. Whitney2006Stuart M. Kaminsky
1973Judson Philips
Alfred Hitchcock		1989Hillary Waugh2007Stephen King
1990Helen McCloy2008Bill Pronzini2019Martin Cruz Smith
1974Ross Macdonald1991Tony Hillerman2009James Lee Burke
Sue Grafton		2020Barbara Neely
1975Eric Ambler1992Elmore Leonard2021Charlaine Harris
Jeffrey Deaver
1976Graham Greene1993Donald E. Westlake2010Dorothy Gilman2022Laurie R. King

Raven Award
Main article: Raven Award

The Raven Awards are recorded in the Edgars Database of the Mystery Writers of America.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Contact the National Office of Mystery Writers of America". Retrieved 2013-04-21.
  2. Piccoli, Sean; Gold, Michael (November 28, 2018). "After Furor, Literary Group Withdraws Honor for 'Central Park Five' Prosecutor". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  3. "Robert crais and Carolyn Hart chosen as the 2014 Grand Masters by Mystery Writers of America". Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  4. "The Raven Awards". Edgars Database. Mystery Writers of America. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
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