The Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of their annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards on Thursday, with Elly Griffiths and Angie Kim among the authors cited for their work.
The awards were held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the prizes announced on Twitter and winners giving their acceptance speeches via YouTube.
Griffiths’ The Stranger Diaries took home the prize for best novel.
“I’m just beyond delighted,” Griffiths said in her acceptance speech. “I’d hoped to be with you tonight, but I feel connected to you still through the wonderful world of books. It will take more than a global pandemic to break the writing community.”
Kim won the award for best first novel by an American author for Miracle Creek. “This mystery writing community has been so warm and welcoming,” Kim said.
The prize for best paperback original went to Adam O’Fallon Price for The Hotel Neversink. “I was…aware of the Edgar Award before I was aware of any other awards people could win for anything,” he said. “Needless to say, for anyone, it is a great and humbling honor to be included in the long, distinguished lineage of Edgar Award winners.”
Other winning authors included Axton Betz-Hamilton (The Less People Know About Us) for best fact crime, Susan Vaught (Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse) for best juvenile, and Naomi Kritzer (Catfishing on CatNet) for best young adult.
A full list of the winners is available on the Edgars website.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
