Sisters in Crime Australia launched the Davitt Awards for best crime books by Australian women at its 10th anniversary convention, SheKilda 2001 to provide some much needed – and overdue – recognition for Australian women crime writers. At that stage, women barely got a look in with the Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing. While women now occasionally win a Neddy, they are still underrepresented generally when it comes to awards, reviews and opportunities.

Six Davitt Awards are presented annually: Best Adult Crime Novel; Best Young Adult Crime Novel; Best Children’s Crime Novel; Best Non-fiction Crime Book; Best Debut Crime Book (any category); and Readers’ Choice (as voted by the 500 members of Sisters in Crime Australia). Note: authors are considered debut authors if their book is their first in the crime or mystery genre. Books must be by Australian citizens or residents and published the previous year.  Self-published books are eligible. Books co-authored by men or including chapters by men are ineligible.

The Davitts are named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865.