Mir wins inaugural CrimeFest bursary

Saima Mir has won the inaugural CrimeFest bursary for a crime fiction author of colour.   

The bursary will cover the cost of a weekend pass to CrimeFest in May, a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance. 

Mir’s debut novel The Khan was published by Point Blank in 2021, and is due in paperback this March. It was a Times and Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year in 2021, and has been longlisted for The Portico Prize. 

She said: “As a young girl growing up in inner city Bradford, I dreamt of being a writer, but didn’t see the names of women like me on the covers of books, or between them. This bursary will allow me to be inspired by the company of seasoned storytellers, fulfil my childhood ambition, and to act as a beacon to other women who dare to dream of being published novelists, but fear the space is not for girls like them.”

Mir’s entry was chosen by CrimeFest organisers and judges Vaseem Khan and critic Ayo Onatade. 
Donna Moore, CrimeFest co-host, said: "We had incredibly strong entries, and we’re thrilled to welcome Saima to CrimeFest and to give her the opportunity to introduce her compelling debut novel, with its fabulous protagonist, to an audience of new readers."

Elizabeth Chakrabarty, Amita Murray, and Stella Oni were also chosen as runners-up and will each receive complimentary passes to this year’s convention, which takes place from 12th–15th May in Bristol. 

Chakrabarty’s critically-acclaimed debut crime novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes was inspired by her own experience of a serious race hate crime in the workplace and was published by Indigo Press in April 2021.

Murray writes murder mysteries with a feminist, multi-cultural edge. The first of her Arya Winters series, Arya Winters and the Tiramisu of Death, was published by Agora Books, an imprint of Polis Books, in 2021, and has been optioned for TV. 

Oni’s debut novel Deadly Sacrifice, a fast paced thriller, set in London and Nigeria and about human trafficking and ritualistic killing, was published by Jacaranda Books in September 2020.