We are happy to announce that Juliet Grames will give the keynote talk at the 2024 Maine Crime Wave and will discuss the current state of the crime fiction landscape, as well as her role and experiences at Soho Press, on June 15. The title of Grames’ talk is “How to Be Crafty: The Genre Writer as Artist, Editor, and Publishing Professional.” Barbara Ross will introduce and lead a Q&A with Juliet.

Juliet Grames is SVP, Editorial Director at Soho Press, where she curates the award-winning Soho Crime imprint and the literature in translation program. She is the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Ellery Queen Award for her editorial contributions to the mystery genre. At Soho, she has worked with such authors as Mick Herron, Sujata Massey, Cara Black, Gary Phillips, Jacqueline Winspear, Naomi Hirahara, James R. Benn, Stuart Neville, Francine Mathews/Stephanie Barron, and MWA Grand Master Peter Lovesey, and to launch the careers of such authors as National Book Award nominee Ramona Emerson, Edgar Award winner Eli Cranor, and Hammett and Nero Award winner Stephen Mack Jones, among numerous others.

Grames is also the author of two novels, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, a national and international bestseller, a century-spanning generational drama about one Italian American family's emigration to the U.S., and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia, forthcoming in July 2024, a mystery novel set in 1960 in the Aspromonte mountains of southern Italy, the cradle of the 'Ndrangheta, the ruthless Calabrian mafia. Stella Fortuna was shortlisted for the New England Book Award and the Connecticut Book Award, and received Italy’s Premio Cetraro for contribution to Southern Italian literature. It has been translated into nine languages. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Best American Mystery & Suspense, Real Simple, Parade, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and the Boston Globe, among other venues.

Grames lives with her husband, Paul Oliver, Director of Publicity at Soho Press and unparalleled genre advisor, in Rhode Island, where they share way too many books, 12 obstreperous chickens, and the Soho Press company baby.

Keynote Talk