CrimeFest announces bursary for author DG Coutinho

The bursary offers the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance.

DG Coutinho will appear at the final CrimeFest after organisers announced 2025 will be the last CrimeFest to be hosted in Bristol after 16 years.

DG Coutinho said: “It’s a real honour to be awarded the bursary for CrimeFest, especially in its final ever event in Bristol.”

"The Light and Shade of Elen Swithin" is their first novel published by Vintage, a darkly comic thriller set in a toxic office culture, for fans of My Sister the Serial Killer and How to Kill Your Family.

Tired of being overshadowed at work, things take a murderous turn as the darker her protagonist Ellen goes, the shinier her future starts to look.

DG Coutinho said: “Readers meeting Ellen learn she’s total nerd who loves live music, and tech. She’s just trying to bag a promotion, pay for her wedding, and navigate life as a Black woman in a White male-dominated profession. She’s ambitious, smart, and a bit of an outsider.”

DG Coutinho won the Bloody Scotland Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition for under-represented writers.

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Mia Quibell-Smith, publicity director at Vintage, Penguin Random House, said: “I'm delighted that DG Coutinho has been chosen for the CrimeFest bursary. I can't think of a more deserving author.

"DG has created a brilliantly morally complex character in Elen Swithin that readers want to cheer for, and anyone who has felt toxicity at work, or unappreciated at work, will definitely identify. We are so grateful to CrimeFest for their generous championing of emerging writers.”

CrimeFest launched the bursary in 2021 with the first award going to Saima Mir to attend the 2022 convention, for her debut novel, The Khan, which was a Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year.

Saima Mir, who grew up in Bradford, said that the bursary allowed her to, “be inspired by the company of seasoned storytellers, fulfil my childhood ambition, and to act as a beacon to other women who dare to dream of being published novelists, but fear the space is not for girls like them.”

2023’s bursary winner was Elizabeth Chakrabarty, whose critically-acclaimed debut crime novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes was inspired by her own experience of a serious race hate crime in the workplace.

Last year’s bursary was awarded to Christie J. Newport, a mixed-race author of The Raven’s Mark and The Ordinary Man, who found escape in stories after developing a rare illness as a child.

Donna Moore, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “The bursary has been an important addition to CrimeFest. CrimeFest is a hotbed for diverse talent thanks to its democratic nature as a convention open to all published authors.

"But we were aware that more was needed for festivals and conventions generally to actively support authors of colour. We’re proud to have helped put bursaries on the agenda as a lasting legacy.”

Nominees for the bursary were reviewed by Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Chair and author Vaseem Khan, and the freelance crime fiction critic and CWA judge, Ayo Onatade.

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India - the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House crime novels set in 1950s Bombay.

Ayo Onatade works with Justices at the Supreme Court, and is a well-known blogger and CWA Red Herring award-winning freelance crime fiction critic.

Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest has been one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days.

The final CrimeFest will feature authors including Lee and Andrew Child, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, Felix Francis, Yrsa Sigurdardottir and John Harvey.

CrimeFest - Bristol's Annual Crime Fiction Convention