Clay Stafford bills his annual mystery genre brainchild as the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference—and he’s right. The 2025 conference, which was the twentieth, had more than three hundred attending participants, who hailed from coast to coast of the United States and from other countries, including Nigeria and England.
Killer Nashville is primarily a craft conference for anyone who dreams of writing crime fiction or is already established in the field. Besides offering one-on-one agent/editor sessions and ticketed workshops led by recognized experts, each hour allows attendees to choose from seven to eight panels. The panels provide in-depth craft discussions on almost any topic or element from cozy to thriller, humor to finding an agent, and technical crime procedures to marketing. Keynote speeches and interviews with Guests of Honor also offer encouragement and knowledge. This year, the Guests of Honor were Sara Paretsky (winner of the John Seigenthaler Legends Award), Kemper Donovan, and Caitlin Rother.
The greatest takeaways for me were the networking fostered by the included lunches and social events and the conference’s recognition of published and unpublished work through the Silver Falchion and Claymore awards. Silver Falchions, for the best books published in 2024, were given in judged and reader’s choice categories in almost any genre or subgenre one could imagine. Claymore awards were presented, based upon independent judging of the first 50 pages of an unpublished work, in similar categories. Because the competition for these awards is steep, the awarding and reactions of the winners at the Saturday evening banquet was especially sweet.
On a personal note, I was delighted to participate as a mentor in two programs. The first was the Southeast Mystery Writers of America’s “Ready, Set, Pitch” session, which allowed authors to practice their pitches and have them critiqued by members of SEMWA the day before they met with real agents or editors.
The second, “Author Speed Dating,” was timed, bite-sized sessions that allowed writers or would-be writers to ask us questions on their works or any other topics that were of concern to them.
During the weekend, I also moderated a panel on “Selling Short Stories” and was a panelist on two: “Writing Short Stories” and “Conflict.” My final Killer Nashville task was to deliver the 20-minute Sunday morning keynote address. As a writer who has weathered ups and downs during the past decade, my topic was “Pivoting When Life Doesn’t Go the Way You Planned.”
Killer Nashville holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first craft conferences I attended when I still dreamed of becoming a published author. Later, it became the place where Should Have Played Poker, a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery, became reality after an editor I pitched reviewed the pages she requested and tendered an offer a week later. Since then, I’ve continued coming back because each time, I see old friends; meet new people; and, more importantly, I always learn something. It hasn’t hurt that I’ve also been a Silver Falchion winner (Five Belles Too Many, Kensington’s Sarah Blair cozy mystery series) and Claymore finalist. I’m already looking forward to attending next year.
Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the award-winning author of With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying, a collection of her short stories from White City Press; Kensington’s five-book Sarah Blair mystery series; and standalones Maze in Blue and Should Have Played Poker. Her novels and short stories have been named Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Claymore finalists and received Silver Falchion, IPPY, AWC, and BWR awards. Find out more about Debra at https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com.
