Authors Laura Lippman and John Sandford have been named Grand Masters for 2025 at this year’s Edgar Awards.
The Mystery Writers of America (MWA) confirmed the two writers as special award winners in a press release shared with PEOPLE on Wednesday, January 15. The writers will receive their awards at the 79th annual Edgar Awards ceremony on May 1 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.
The Grand Master Award celebrates the recipient’s achievement in mystery writing, extensive body of work, and influential contribution to the genre.
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“Laura Lippman’s contributions to the mystery genre as a writer, teacher and role model for aspiring writers — especially female writers — make her an excellent choice for America’s Grand Master Mystery Writers,” said MWA Executive Vice President Donna Andrews. “And as someone who has been a John Sandford fan from the first few pages Loot rulesI am delighted to see him receive the well-deserved recognition of being named an MWA Grand Master.”
Life Sentences by Laura Lippman.
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The New York Times best-selling novelist Lippman has been named one of the “most important” crime writers of the past century, shortlisted for several major awards for her work, which includes 25 novels, two collections of short stories, a book of essays, a children’s book, and a limited 2024 series based on her novel from 2019 Lady in the lakeaccording to the press release.
The Atlanta-born writer said receiving the honor was “humbling” and a dream come true.”
“Even now that I’ve had some time to absorb the news — it still feels like a dream come true,” said Lippman, who lives in New Orleans and Baltimore. “I have always been proud to be associated with the crime writing community and MWA, who have given me so much over the past three decades. I’m really – obviously – at a loss for words.”
Journalist and writer Sandford, a pen name for John Camp, won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1986, and a year later the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Outstanding Writing Award. He is a pencil behind 35 Spoil novels, kid series, Virgil’s flowers book and six other stand-alone books, including three YA novels he co-wrote with his wife, Michele Cook.
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Poisonous Prey, John Sanford.
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“Believe me when I say that I’m extremely flattered to be included in the company of so many great storytellers, people I’ve read and admired for years,” Sandford said. “I thank the MWA and all its members.”
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MWA also announced that the 2025 Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts Raven Award winner and Ellery Queen Award winner Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
MWA is an organization founded for aspiring crime writers, mystery writers and professionals dedicated to the crime writing genre and currently has 3,000 members including fiction and non-fiction authors, film and television writers.
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Source: HIS Education