Queens of Crime, 12-13 June 2014

Institute of English Studies

Senate House, University of London

 

Keynote Speakers: Val McDermid, Dr. Lee Horsley

 

Since the 1920s, women have been among the most prolific and influential authors of crime fiction. Some of the best-known heroes and anti-heroes of fiction are also women. From pioneers in the genre, such as Anna Katherine Green and the Baroness Orczy, through Golden Age queens of crime, like Agatha Christie (for whom the term was invented), Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham, to the innovators of the present day, including Sara Paretsky, Val McDermid, and Kate Atkinson, the female of the species has been more deadly than the male.

 

This conference will address the relationship of gender and genre, past and present, and the known and the unknown. Many Queens of Crime are well-known academically as well as to the reading public, but their work continues to inspire fresh scholarship and novel perspectives. Others are continually in print but have not received equal academic attention. Some are too new in the field to have been thoroughly considered. Some have been unjustly forgotten. We welcome new work of all kinds regarding these many and various Queens of Crime.