Crime fiction Prize launched for thrillers that avoid sexual violence against women The Staunch book prize has been founded to honour books where ‘no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered’ Call for fresh plotlines … a chalk body outline at a crime scene. Founded by the author and screenwriter Bridget Lawless, the Staunch book prize will open to entries next month, with the winner to be announced on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. “My take on writing about violence against women is that it’s my anger at that very thing that fires much of my work. “Women writers get asked all the time, ‘How does it feel as a woman to write about women as victims of violence?’ Male writers are never asked this question. “How we see women depicted and treated in fiction does spread out to the wider world and how women are treated there.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2018 13:18 UTC