​Older women have traditionally been portrayed negatively in folklore, fairy tales, literature and film, for example. Images of witches, evil stepmothers, shrivelled, bitter 'spinsters', and vindictive, bullying women abusing positions of power are rife in Western culture. Yet, perhaps things are changing. A new emphasis on the need to discuss and understand the menopause seems to be at the heart of this. 
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​Conference: Falmouth University UK, 10-11 June 2022
Deadline: 1 April 2021

And so it is Christmas… we would like to wish a very Merry Christmas to our wonderful delegates! Let’s hope 2022 brings more promise than 2021 (and, of course, the unspeakable 2020).

We thought we would put together a list of quality crime fiction recommendations to indulge over the festive season for those Christmas lovers (and Grinches!) What’s your favourite Christmas Crime binge?  

Our friends at the 221B magazine have some exciting news—after its 6th year of success, they are introducing a quarterly online English edition! For those of you who don't know, 221B is a bimonthly crime fiction and culture magazine that was first published in Turkey on January 2016. 221B is not just a crime fiction magazine; it is also a crime culture magazine. 221B is committed to handling various subjects regarding universal and local crime fiction including crime narratives, comic books, academic research, film & TV and book reviews, author interviews and of course short stories.

The second runner up to be reviewed by ​Dr. Linda Ledford-Miller is Stacy Gillis and Gunnthórunn Gudmundsdóttir's edited collection, Noir in the North: Gender, Politics, and Place​ (2020). 

​Once again, we would like to congratulate all of the authors and editors of these outstanding volumes of crime fiction scholarship. 

As promised at our online event in November, we will be reviewing both of the runners up of the 2020 ICFA Book Prize on our association blog. 

​First up, ​Susannah B. Mintz's The Disabled Detective: Sleuthing Disability in Contemporary Crime Fiction (2020) reviewed by ​Dr. Linda Ledford-Miller. 

​Please find below a CFP for a seminar of the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, which will take place at National Taiwan Normal University.

Deadline: October 31, 2021
Conference:  15-18 June 2022

She gave us intricate plots, red herrings, and iconic detectives in the form of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple—born on this day in 1890, Agatha Christie is credited with revolutionising the mystery genre. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) which celebrated its hundred and first birthday this year, was written after a bet with her sister Madge and inspired by the Belgium refugees in the wake of the first world war. Four years and six rejections later, the novel was published—earning her the meagre price of twenty-five pounds for her pains.

Though the plot revolves around a murder at a hunting weekend set in the British countryside, the aspect of the crime itself seems to move into the periphery of the narrative, allowing space for the actual central theme of the film: the many characters and their interclass relations. ​American director, Robert Altman, boldly claimed: “I don’t call it a whodunit so much as I call it a who cares whodunit” (Altman and Fellowes) when describing his film, Gosford Park (2001), which combines the genre of British heritage films with the classic whodunit narrative (Dalrymple 2). Indeed,  as viewers, we might sympathize with this quote when considering the critical social undercurrent of the narrative.