It’s time to tap into your inner sleuth, and start crafting your short story crime fiction masterpiece for this year’s CCW Audrey short story contest.  This is your chance to put your story in front of our panel of award-winning professional writers. Meet our judges:

Ottawa crime writer Brenda Chapman began her writing career with the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for young adults with Running Scared, the first in the series, released in 2004. During this period, Brenda wrote short stories that were published in various magazines, including Canadian Living, Storyteller and the 2005 anthology When Boomers Go Bad. In 2010, her first standalone mystery for adults entitled In Winter’s Grip was released. She currently has two adult series in the works: the Anna Sweet mysteries for adult literacy (Grass Roots Press) and the Stonechild and Rouleau mysteries — Shallow End, the fourth in this police procedural series will be on the shelves in March 2017 (Dundurn).

Melissa Yi is an emergency physician who writes Derringer Award-nominated mysteries. CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter selected STOCKHOLM SYNDROME, the Hope Sze medical thriller about a Montreal hostage-taking, as one of the best crime novels of the season. Melissa’s work has been hailed as “impressive” and “moving” by Publishers Weekly. Her short fiction has graced Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jewish Noir, Indian Country Noir, Sleuth Magazine, and will appear the upcoming Montreal Noir. In her spare time, Melissa chases after two small children and one large Rottweiler. She hangs out at Facebook, Twitter (@dr_sassy) and melissayuaninnes.com.

Madona Skaff-Koren was a past president of both Capital Crime Writers and the Ottawa Chapter of Sisters in Crime.  With a degree in biology, she worked in mining research for many years.  In 2015 she published her mystery novel, “JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND STEPS” (Renaissance Press), about a marathon runner disabled by MS who turns sleuth to find her missing friend. She has also published several short stories, including the Arthur Ellis finalist “FIRST IMPRESSIONS”, which appeared in The Whole She-Bang 2 (2014). Find her on Facebook, at madonaskaff.com and renaissancebookpress.com.