Detective novelist 
Sara Paretsky will receive the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award for her long career in the genre.
MWA executive VP Larry Light had this statement: “The mystery genre took a seven-league stride thanks to Paretsky, whose gutsy and dauntless protagonist showed that women can be tough guys, too … Before, in Sara’s words, women in mysteries were either vamps or victims. Her heroine, private eye V.I. Warshawski, is whip-smart and two-fisted, capable of slugging back whiskey and wrecking cars, and afire to redress social injustice.”
Paretsky (pictured, in 1989) will receive the award at the Edgar Awards Banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on April 28, 2011. The ceremony will also honor two bookstores the 2011 Raven Award, celebrating “outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.” The bookstores are: Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis and Centuries & Sleuths in Chicago.