Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award Is Back

After a six-year absence, the Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award “for books that make us smile” is back. The award is a jolly plaque (shown above) plus $1000. The 2027 award will be presented once again next year at the 2027 Bony Blithe Mini-con on Friday, May 14 (mark your calendars). Thank you to our sponsors: the Toronto chapter of Sisters in Crime (TorSinC), and author Jan Field.

The award is for books that are fun to read. No angst, no gravitas, no brutality or horribleness. It’s for traditional mysteries, cozies, capers, satires, heists, humorous books (from gentle humour to laugh-out-loud fun), books that don’t hammer us with A Message. In other words, books that entertain us, that make us feel good, that make us smile.

The full rules will be posted next month here and elsewhere, but in a nutshell, you are eligible to submit to the award if:

• Your book was published for the first time between January 1 and December 31, 2026. The book can be published in any format: print, e-book, or audio book.
• Your book is in English.
• Your book is a minimum of 60,000 words.
• You are a Canadian citizen (you don’t have to be living in Canada) or a permanent resident of Canada. Your publisher does not have to be Canadian.

Submission rules

Submissions should be in e-book format (PDF, ePub). They should be sent as attachments or a link to award@bonyblithe.ca. Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2026.

There is a $20 submission fee, which should be e-transferred to info@bonyblithe.ca

We will be open for submissions on September 2, 2026.

 

Either you or your publisher can submit your book. Right now, we are rebuilding our sadly out-of-date list of publishers we can contact to submit books to the award.

If you are published by a publisher who submits books to award contests, please send the name of the publisher plus contact info for whoever is responsible for submitting books to us at award@bon‍yblithe.ca

Last updated 3 July 2026.

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