John L. Hill’s Novel, The Rest of the [True Crime] Story,(Published by AOS Publishing) is nominated forThe Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize
John L. Hill is a Canadian lawyer who has defended some of Canada’s most notorious criminals. He holds a B.A., M.A., and J.D. from Queen’s University and an LL.M. in Constitutional Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. He has taught prison law at Queen’s University and at the University of Windsor Law School.
Hill has attended and presented papers at the International Association of Law and Mental Health conferences in Siena, Italy, Paris, France, and Amsterdam. He has also lectured at the University of the Pacific Law School in California.
Now retired, Hill is a columnist for Law 360 Canada, an online newspaper serving Canada’s legal community. He comments on current issues dealing with criminal and prison law.
Hill has authored two books: Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement (Durvile Publishing, 2022) and The Rest of the [True Crime] Story (AOS Publishing, 2024). He has contributed a chapter to Indigenous Justice (Durvile Publishing, 2023) and a magazine article dealing with slavery in nineteenth-century Ontario for a Florida-based publication.
Hill is a professional member of Crime Writers Canada and volunteers as a mentor for lawyers wanting to practice prison law.
Pamela Jones’s book, The Windmill Mystery (published by Austin Macauley Publishers), is nominated for the Best Crime Novella sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $200 prize.
For many years, Pamela has been a writer of program notes for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the NAC Orchestra, the Festival de Lanaudière, and numerous magazines and festivals in both Europe and Canada. In 2007 McGill-Queen’s University Press published her biography of a Quebec composer (Alcides Lanza: Portrait of a Composer). For this biography, she was awarded the Québec Opus prize for “Livre de l’année, An 2007-2008” (book of the year, 2007-08). She has a PH D in Musicology from King’s College (London) and taught music and dance at the National Theatre School of Canada.
Marianne K. Miller’s debut novel, We Were the Bullfighters, (Dundurn Press) is about Ernest Hemingway’s time at the Toronto Daily Star in 1923. On his first day, Hemingway was sent to cover a prison break at Kingston Pen. The novel follows Hemingway and the convicts on the run. A graduate of the Creative Writing Program, School of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto, Miller won and was twice short-listed for the Random House Award for Student Writing. Her story, Vigil Night, appeared in The Antigonish Review. Her monologue, a. k. a. Jason, is a popular audition piece for aspiring actors. A member of the Hemingway Society, in 2018, she presented a paper, Hemingway in Toronto, at the 18th International Hemingway Conference in Paris, France.
Therese Greenwood is nominated for Best Crime Short Story for her story, Hatcheck Bingo, from The 13th Letter, A Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem Anthology, published by Carrick Publishing
Fort McMurray writer Therese Greenwood has been named a Finalist for the 2025 Award of Excellence for Best Short Story from the Crime Writers of Canada. It is Greenwood’s fourth nomination for Canada’s top mystery writing prize. Greenwood’s 2025 nomination is for “Hatchcheck Bingo,” a women-centred story set in the Prohibition era. Greenwood’s story appeared in Carrick Publishing’s 2024 crime fiction collection The Thirteenth Letter, (A , Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem anthology which is) nominated for a 2025 Derringer Award for Best Anthology.
Therese’s short crime fiction has appeared across Canada and the U.S. and she won the 2019 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for her story “Buck’s Last Ride” in Kill As You Go, her 2018 short story collection. She has co-edited two short crime fiction anthologies.
Therese’s memoir of the Fort McMurray wildfire, What You Take With You: Wildfire, Family and the Road Home, was a Finalist for the 2020 Alberta Book Publishing Awards from The Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA). Nominated in the Trade Non-fiction category, What You Take With You: Wildfire, Family and the Road Home was published by the University of Alberta Press. An eyewitness account of the Fort McMurray wildfire and evacuation, the book is also about the physical and emotional artifacts we carry with us in times of crisis.
Therese has worked as a reporter and editor and spent a decade as a CBC Radio correspondent. Her feature stories and columns appear regularly in national news publications, and she is a frequent commentator on issues related to both wildfires and crime fiction. She has a Master’s degree in journalism.
Twist Phelan is nominated for two awards in 2025. Her story Aim (featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)is on the shortlist for Best Crime Novella sponsored by Carrick Publishing and she is nominated for Best Juvenile / YA Crime Book sponsored by Superior Shores, for her book, Snowed (published by Bronzeville Books).
Twist Phelan is the award-winning author of eleven mystery novels, which have been praised by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, and Booklist.
She also writes short stories, which have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and various anthologies. Accolades for her work include two Thriller Awards and the Arthur Ellis Award, plus multiple nominations for the Thriller, Ellis, Shamus, Anthony, Derringer, Silver Falchion, and Lefty Awards, as well as the Crime Writers of Canada's Award of Excellence and the Irish Book Awards.
Jaima Fixsen’s novel The Specimen, (published by Poisoned Pen Press) is nominated for
The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel, sponsored by the Boreal Benefactor with a $1000 prize
Jaima Fixsen is a USA Today and International best-selling author living and writing in Edmonton, Alberta. Her novel, The Girl In His Shadow (co-authored under the pen name Audrey Blake), was selected as Libby’s 2022 Big Library Read. Her books have been translated in eight languages.
Jaima studied Occupational Therapy at the University of Alberta. Her classes there on human anatomy and health care ethics began a longtime fascination with medical history, which often figures in her novels. She loves history, snow, reading, snow, and spending as much time as possible in the Canadian Rockies.
Raye Anderson's novel, The Dead Shall Inherit, (published by Signature Editions) was nominated for The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize.
Raye Anderson is a Scots Canadian who taught Drama and ran Theatre and Community arts programs for many years, notably at Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, in Ottawa and Calgary.
Raye has been a resident of the Interlake since 2007 and presently lives in Gimli. Her first crime fiction novel, And We Shall Have Snow, was published by Signature Editions in 2020. It was a finalist for Best First Novel for the Crime Writers of Canada, Awards of Excellence and was also shortlisted in the Original Softcover Fiction category of the WILLA Literary Awards.
The second book in the series, which features Sergeant Roxanne Calloway of the RCMP, occurs mostly in Winnipeg, in a fictional theatre company. Titled And Then Is Heard No More, it was published in 2021, and was the Winnipeg Free Press/McNally Robinson Book Club pick for July/August of 2022.
Raye returned to the Interlake as the setting for the third and fourth books in the series, Down Came The Rain (2022) and Sing a Song of Summer (July, 2023).
The Dead Shall Inherit (September, 2024) is the first in a new series. Elspeth Laird is a Canadian, born in Scotland, who returns there when her aunt leaves her a house on a Hebridean island.
Had a Great Fall, book 5 in the Roxanne Calloway series, will be released in the fall of 2025.
Suzan Denoncourt’s novel, The Burden of Truth, (published by Suzan Denoncourt) was nominated for Best Crime First Novel, sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize.
It was at the height of her career as a business executive that Suzan chose to pivot away from the corporate world and embrace a totally new chapter. Literally. Gravitating toward mystery/suspense/crime fiction, she completed the first two manuscripts in the Cisco series before pursuing publication of her debut novel, The Burden of Truth. The early response was so favourable, she released book two, Heaven’s Debris, just four months later. The next installment from this Montreal-based, married mother of two is expected in late 2025, with more novels in the series to follow thereafter.
Jim McDonald has been judged a finalist for the prestigious Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime First Novel, sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize for his noir psychological thriller Altered Boy, available on Amazon Kindle. The winner will be announced on May 30, 2025.
Also on Kindle: Smash Palace, a collection of 32 short stories. Coming in 2026, his historical novel Counterculture Revolution, set in 1970, is about the anti-war activist group The Weathermen.
Altered Boy is the featured novel for Humanist Canada’s Book Club online meeting on June 3, 2025. Jim will be in attendance to answer questions.
In addition, Jim’s short story “Ticket Out” is in the anthology Midnight Schemers and Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery and Suspense, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, to be released June 18, 2025.
*Note: There's a reference to a CWC mentor that Jim had years ago, and he couldn't recall his name. Jim did some post-interview digging and found his notes. It was Michael McKinley. Born in Vancouver, he now lives in New York City. He wrote "Ice Time: The Story of Hockey" and "Hockey Night in Canada," to name a couple. His mystery book was The Penalty Killing. In 2010, he was with CWC but has since left. He was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award in 2011 for best first crime novel.
Cathy Ace’s novel, The Corpse with the Pearly Smile, (published by Four Tails Publishing Ltd.) has been nominated for The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize.
Ace’s Cait Morgan Mysteries feature a globetrotting Welsh Canadian criminal psychologist who solves traditional whodunits alongside her retired-cop husband, Bud Anderson (Eve Myles will portray Cait in the TV production by Free@LastTV). Her WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries feature four softly-poached female PIs solving cosy cases from a Welsh stately home. She's a past Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, and is a Bony Blithe, IPPY, IBA and Editor’s Choice CrimeFictionLover Award winner. This is her third nomination for Crime Writers of Canada Awards. She migrated from Wales aged 40, and now lives in Canada.