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The Darcy Scott Award for Young Mystery Writers Fundraiser

  • Longfellow Books 1 Monument St. Path Portland, ME, 04101 United States (map)

Join us for the Darcy Scott Award Fundraiser featuring a reading and signing by the award-winning Bruce Robert Coffin, author of the bestselling Detective Byron mystery series, at Longfellow Books on Friday, May 5th, at 5:30 p.m.


The Darcy Scott Award is given in memory of Darcy Scott, author of the Island Mystery series, part of the book sales proceeds will be used to support the Darcy Scott Award for Young Mystery Writers. This award provides one young writer with a full scholarship to attend the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Maine Crime Wave and a travel/hotel stipend to stay in Portland. A $10 donation is suggested.

Open to the public, and refreshments will be provided. For more information, visit www.maineauthorspublishing.com/darcyscottaward


To be eligible for The Darcy Scott Award all applicants must:

  • live in Maine at least 6 months a year

  • and be under the age of 40 at the time of application.

Note: There is no limitation on what the award recipient has previously published, or if they have not published any work yet.


Bruce Coffin Bruce Robert Coffin is the award-winning author of the Detective Byron mystery series and former detective sergeant with more than twenty-seven years in law enforcement. At the time of his retirement, from the Portland, Maine police department, he supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine’s largest city. Following the terror attacks of September 11th, Bruce spent four years working counter-terrorism with the FBI, earning the Director’s Award, the highest honor a non-agent can receive.

Winner of Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Awards for Best Procedural and Best Investigator, and the Maine Literary Award for Best Crime Fiction Novel, Bruce was also a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel.

Bruce’s short fiction appears in many anthologies, including The Best American Mystery Stories 2016.

He is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. He is a regular blog contributor to Murder Books blog.

He lives and writes in Maine.


Award-winning author Darcy Scott (Best Mystery, 2013 Indie Book Awards; Silver Award, 2013 Readers Favorite Book Awards; Bronze Award, 2013 IPPY Awards; Winner, 2019 National Indie Excellence Award) was a live-aboard sailor and experienced ocean cruiser who’s sailed to Grenada and back on a whim, island-hopped through the Caribbean, and was struck by lightning in the middle of the Gulf Stream. For all her wandering, her summer home and favorite cruising grounds remained along the coast of Maine—the history and rugged beauty of its sparsely populated out-islands serving as inspiration for much of her fiction, including Margel’s Madness and her popular Island Mystery Series (Matinicus, Reese’s Leap, and Ragged Island). Her debut novel, Hunter Huntress, was published in 2010 by Snowbooks, Ltd., UK.