In a last-minute turn of events, we were fortunately able to attend the Killer Nashville Awards Banquet! We had never been to KN, or to a writing conference at all before, but we’re so glad we made the trip.

Killer Nashville is a writing conference focusing on the genres of mystery, thriller, suspense, and everything in between! Killer Nashville was started in 2006 by bestselling writer Clay Stafford, and in the years since they have helped countless writers through programming, panels, pitching sessions, and their Claymore and Silver Falchion Awards! The Silver Falchion Awards are for published works of full-length fiction, but the Claymores are given to unpublished manuscripts—specifically the first 50 pages of an unpublished manuscript. Writers are invited to submit their manuscripts in a variety of categories—like cozy mystery, thriller, and western—and when finalists were announced earlier in the summer, we were honored that three of our manuscripts were among those chosen: Still Life in the Best Investigator category, Perfect Fifth in the Best Literary category, and Eternal Return and Other Stories in the Best Short Story Collection category.

According to killernashville.com, in 2023 KN brought together over 400 attendees and 179 Author/Panelists for 153 presentations and panels across the weekend. Multiple book signings, networking events, and critique sessions also rounded out the conference. We arrived just in time for the late afternoon social hour, and it seemed like dozens of those attendees had just come out from their panels. The vibe was active and lively, as the atrium filled with people preparing for the evening’s awards banquet.

Claymores and Falchions were given out in pairs by category, with winners invited to the microphone for brief speeches. We hadn’t exactly coordinated between ourselves what we would do or say if we won, but to our complete surprise, we ended up winning the Best Literary Claymore for Perfect Fifth! This story has been so challenging to write, and we are so glad that it’s being received so positively. We’re very appreciative of the readers and judges of the Claymore Awards, and of our table-mates and everyone we talked to that evening for being so kind and welcoming. We hope we’re able to return to a future KN even if we aren’t nominated—it truly felt like a place for writers to connect, learn from each other, and promote their work in a way that few other writing conferences offer to genre writers. It really seems like Killer Nashville exists to give opportunities to writers, and we’re glad to be even a small part of that!

A video of the entire awards ceremony can be found here. Details about next year’s conference can be found here, and information about the Claymore Awards, including where to submit for the 2024 awards, are on this page. All you need are the first 50 pages of your unpublished manuscript! All of the finalists for the 2023 Killer Nashville Claymore Awards can be found here. Our thanks to everyone involved in putting on such an incredible conference, those who read and judge the manuscripts, and volunteer their time year after year!

Information about Perfect Fifth can be found here (scroll down to Perfect Fifth!)