News

Tony Hillerman Prize – Deadline Submission is January 2

Winner of the Hillerman Prize will be announced at the Hillerman Luncheon, Saturday, November 7.  Tickets are available on our Tony Hillerman Writers Conference registration page.

Visit the CONTEST page  for submission guidelines.

Sponsored by St. Martin's Press and WORDHARVEST, the Tony Hillerman Prize is awarded annually for the best first mystery set in the Southwest. The winner receives a contract with St. Martin's Press for publication of the novel and $10,000. Named after New Mexico's best known mystery author, the Tony Hillerman Prize competition is open to any professional or non-professional writer who has never been the author of a published mystery, or under contract with a publisher for publication of a mystery. Murder or another serious crime or crimes must be at the heart of the story, with the emphasis on the solution rather than the details of the crime.

John Fortunato Awarded Hillerman Prize

On Nov. 8, 2014, at the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, N.M., WORDHARVEST and St. Martin’s Press awarded the Hillerman Prize to John Fortunado for his novel, Dark Reservations. 

Fortunato was a Captain in the U.S. Army, Military Intelligence, who served at the Pentagon during the early part of the global war on terrorism. He is now a Special Agent with the FBI and has earned an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. A native of Philadelphia, he currently lives in Michigan with his wife and three daughters.

The Tony Hillerman Prize is awarded annually to the best debut mystery set in the Southwest. The prize garners a $10,000 advance and publication by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. The deadline for 2015 entries is June 1.