It’s A Crime

From sleuths and suspects to setting and suspense, this panel explores how queer perspectives are reshaping crime as a genre, bringing new tensions, fresh voices and unexpected twists. Hear how these authors build atmosphere, craft compelling plots, and push beyond familiar tropes.

Whether you’re a crime devotee or an aspiring writer, expect sharp insights, dark delights, and plenty of intrigue. Come for the secrets behind the stories, and leave inspired to uncover a few of your own.

Join V.G. Lee (Our Shadow Selves), Louise Welsh (The Cut Up), DG Coutinho (The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin) and chair Iona Hepburn (Bonfire) for an intimate in-conversation event on writing queer crime fiction.

3-Day Festival and Friday Pass holders: This event is free to attend with your pass, but advance registration is required as places are limited. Please book a Pass Holder Free Registration ticket to reserve your place. Without a reservation, we cannot guarantee entry.

Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of ten novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was awarded the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2022 she published The Second Cut, which was a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Book of the Year and named by The Times as their Crime Book of the Year.

V G Lee was married at 19 and divorced at 35. For the last five years of her marriage she was having an affair with another woman. Now openly gay, she wrote her first book at the age of 50 and embraced standup comedy at the age of 60. She is now 76. She is championed by fellow authors, Stella Duffy, Sarah Waters and Jake Arnott and is a regular on the Polari Literary Salon circuit. She was shortlisted for a Stonewall Award and has won the Ultimate Planet Award but this is her first work of crime fiction. Born in Birmingham, she lived in Stoke Newington for many years and now lives in Hastings on the south coast.

DG Coutinho is an award winning Author. They landed the Bloody Scotland Harvill Secker Crime Writing Award in 2021. They also perform spoken word as DGC. They are the cofounder and MC of Boisterous Ravens a spoken word event featuring Black, Brown and Global Majority women and Non- Binary performers. They have co-authored the children’s book Activists In Action: Prudence Mabele celebrating the life and accomplishments of the late AIDS activist with Naz Project London. They write short stories, and dabble in scriptwriting. Their book Prodigal Honey was longlisted for the Exeter Novel prize. Their twisty satirical thriller The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin is out now in paperback published by Vintage… Oh and they’ve just been nominated for The CrimeFest Last Laugh Award 2025 so now they’ll be insufferable.

Iona Hepburn was born in England to a European mother and an Anglo-Indian father. She holds an MB BS from the University of London and Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. Iona’s first foray into writing was as editor of her medical school journal, Malady Maker. She worked in medical publishing during a gap year before a brief collaboration with Tetra films on a hospital-based TV drama. Her first serious writing course clashed with the Covid pandemic, so she wrote between shifts on the ICU. She writes crime because she believes that doctors and the police share a similar humanity and overfamiliarity with death. Iona lives in Brighton with her wife and daughter. Bonfire is her debut novel.