History of SheKilda Women's Crime Writing Convention

In 2001, Sisters in Crime Australia celebrated its tenth anniversary with Australia’s very first crime convention – SheKilda. It marked a coming of age, not just for Sisters in Crime but for the reputation and reach of women’s crime fiction itself, both on the page and on the screen.

SheKilda brought together nearly every published woman crime writer in Australia, including authors experimenting with the very new e-novel format. Screen-writers, producers, scholars, agents and practitioners of ‘true crime’ – authors, police detectives, private investigators, lawyers and others – added to the depth of criminal discussions on the weekend of 26 – 28 October 2001 at St Kilda Town Hall, St Kilda, Vic.

SheKilda was incredibly privileged to have British ‘tart noir’ crime author, Lauren Henderson, as the international guest speaker. On the Saturday night, Victoria’s first woman police commissioner, Christine Nixon, also honoured the convention by presenting the inaugural Davitt Award for the best crime or mystery novel published in the previous year in Australia by an Australian woman.

The convention received some sponsorship from the City of Port Phillip and Snap Printing and support from bookshops, publishers and others.