WELCOME TO KILLER WOMEN

In April this year, Killer Women launched a new initiative to support emerging female crime writers from BAME and working-class/low income backgrounds. The scheme offers the opportunity for four women seeking to write crime fiction to be expertly mentored by four successful, published authors.

Kahlia Bakosi, Louise Cannon, Laura Mace and Veena Muthuraman have now been selected from over 50 applicants to the scheme. They will be mentored by Killer Women authors, Jane Casey, Tammy Cohen, Emma Kavanagh-Jones and Colette McBeth. Each mentor will read work in progress, and offer advice and support, including up to 12 hours of one-to-one contact time.

Melanie McGrath and Louise Millar, co-founders of Killer Women: ‘Killer Women was set up to amplify and support female voices in crime fiction. We are thrilled to be able to support four new writers on their path to publication.’

The Killer Women mentors said: 'The standard of submissions was impressive and covered a hugely diverse range of subjects. With such an array of raw talent, it was hard to whittle the entries down but we're very happy with our final choices - four very different writers, each with their own individual style and voice, informed by their particular backgrounds. Publishing can sometimes appear to be homogeneously middle class and we feel that each of our four mentees has the potential to produce something uniquely fresh and exciting and we can't wait to start working with them to further hone their ideas and see where the coming year might take them.'