The Maine Crime Wave is a conference celebrating crime, mystery, thriller, and related novels. The 2025 Maine Crime Wave will happen on Saturday, September 27 at Mechanics’ Hall in Portland—please save the date!

The 2025 Maine Crime Wave not only has a new date; it will break new ground!

As our planning group met to discuss the possibilities, we realized we all still crave community, the opportunity to share our work, learn from each other, and forge associations and friendships that would grow our careers as writers and feed our souls. We further agreed that this type of experience doesn’t come from an endless barrage of panels—no matter how lively, informative, and even hilarious those panels might be. It comes from talking and sharing. So, we dreamed up a new format for the Crime Wave, one that emphasizes roundtables, hosted by authors and others in our field with helpful experience, but with the content driven by the participants’ questions and reflections. We have created a list of table topics with the full-breadth of the New England crime writing community in mind—something for everyone regardless of subgenre, career stage, approach to or experience with publication. Please stay tuned for more details as we announce them.

We are also happy to again offer the Darcy Scott Award for Young Mystery Writers, which provides a full scholarship to the Crime Wave plus a cash award to cover hotel and travel costs. Please see the link for full application and eligibility details.