Black Orchid Novella Award

AHMM and The Wolfe Pack, the official Nero Wolfe appreciation society, team up each year to sponsor an annual writing contest that seeks to honor an unpublished work of fiction written in the tradition of the Nero Wolfe mystery stories by Rex Stout. Rex Stout was a master of the novella form and published dozens of novellas featuring the corpulent and irascible detective Nero Wolfe and his sidekick Archie Goodwin. Today, the novella is uncommon, though AHMM has a long tradition of publishing novellas. More information on the contest, including submission guidelines, can be found here.

BONA Winners

2018 Mark Bruce for “Minerva James and the Goddess of Justice” – July/August 2019

2017 Mark Thielman for “The Black Drop of Venus” – July/August 2018

2016 Steve Liskow for “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma” – July/August 2017

2015 Mark Thielman for “A Meter of Murder” – July/August 2016

2014 K. G. McAbee for “Dyed to Death” – July/August 2015

2013 Susan Thibadeau for “The Discarded Spouse” – July/August 2014

2012 Robert Lopresti for “The Red Envelope” – July/August 2013

2011 Jolie McLarren Swann for “Inner Fire” – July/August 2012

2010 Bradley Crowther for “Politics Make Dead Bedfellows” – July/August 2011

2009 Steve Liskow for “Stranglehold” – July/August 2010

2008 Michael Nethercott for “O’Nelligan’s Glory” – July/August 2009

2007 John Gregory Betancourt for “Horse Pit” – July/August 2008