International Thriller Writers, Inc., was founded October 9, 2004, at a meeting at Bouchercon

Bouchercon

Bouchercon, the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher....

 World Mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 and Suspense

Suspense

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...

 Conference in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Six months later, some 150 authors with more than one billion books sold worldwide had joined the organization as founding members.

Co-founders Gayle Lynds

Gayle Lynds

Gayle Lynds is an American author. A member of the U.S. Association for Intelligence Officers, she is known for being a bestselling novelist in the male-dominated genre of spy fiction or spy thrillers...

 and David Morrell

David Morrell

David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become the successful Rambo film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 26 languages...

 are the organization's first co-presidents. Its membership includes Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler

Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...

, Faye Kellerman

Faye Kellerman

Faye Kellerman is an American author of mystery novels, in particular the "Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus" series, as well as three non-series books, The Quality of Mercy, Moon Music and Straight into Darkness.-Early life:...

, Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is an American psychologist, and Edgar and Anthony Award winning author of numerous bestselling suspense novels....

, John Lescroart

John Lescroart

John T. Lescroart is an American author best known for two series of legal and crime thriller novels featuring the characters Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky....

, Steve Berry, David Baldacci

David Baldacci

David Baldacci is a bestselling American novelist.-Biography:Baldacci received a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. As a student, Baldacci wrote short stories in his spare time, and later practiced law for nine years near Washington, D.C....

, Dale Brown

Dale Brown

Dale Brown is an American author and aviator, most famous for his aviation techno-thriller novels, with thirteen New York Times best sellers to his name.Brown was born in Buffalo, New York...

, Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown

Sandra Lynn Brown is an American bestselling author of romantic novels and thriller suspense novels. Brown has also published works under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan, and Erin St. Claire....

, Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen, M.D., is a Chinese-American novelist and retired physician. Her first name is really Terry; she decided to feminize it when she was a writer of romance novels.-Early life:...

, Lee Child

Lee Child

Jim Grant , better known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British thriller writer. His wife Jane is a New Yorker, and they currently live in New York state. His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel....

, M. J. Rose, David Dun

David Dun

David Dun is a thriller writer.David Dun was born and grew up in western Washington but moved to northern California to begin his legal career. He holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Washington and earned his law degree at Seattle University...

, Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder is an American writer of several thrillers set in a business environment. His books include Paranoia, Company Man, Killer Instinct and Power Play...

, Gregg Hurwitz

Gregg Hurwitz

Gregg Hurwitz is a writer of crime novels and comics.-Biography:Gregg Hurwitz is the critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of The Tower, Minutes to Burn, Do No Harm, The Kill Clause, The Program, Troubleshooter, Last Shot, The Crime Writer, and Trust No One...

, M. Diane Vogt, Raelynn Hillhouse

Raelynn Hillhouse

Raelynn Hillhouse is an American national security and Intelligence Community analyst, former smuggler during the Cold War, and a spy novelist.-Personal history:...

, Ridley Pearson

Ridley Pearson

Ridley Pearson, born on March 13, 1953 in Glen Cove, New York, is an American writer. Pearson has historically written suspense and thriller novels for an adult audience, but has also begun branching out by writing adventure books for children....

, Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston is an American author who has written seventeen popular techno-thriller and horror novels, four alone and the rest with Lincoln Child...

, Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...

, Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is an American author of fiction. She is the author of several thrillers including The Killing Hour and The Next Accident. She also wrote romance novels using the pseudonym Alicia Scott. Raised in Hillsboro, Oregon, she graduated from the city's Glencoe High School...

, Brian Garfield

Brian Garfield

Brian Francis Wynne Garfield is an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen and wrote several novels under such pen names as "Frank Wynne" and "'Brian Wynne" before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel...

, Katherine Neville, R. L. Stine

R. L. Stine

Robert Lawrence Stine , known as R. L. Stine, and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American writer. Stine, who is called the "Stephen King of children's literature," is the author of hundreds of horror fiction novels, including the books in the Fear Street, Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The...

, David Liss

David Liss

David Liss is an American writer of novels, essays and short fiction; more recently working also in comic books. He was born in New Jersey and grew up in South Florida. Liss received his B. A. degree from Syracuse University, an M. A. from Georgia State University and his M. Phil from Columbia...

 and Stuart Woods

Stuart Woods

-Early life:Stuart Woods was born in Manchester, Georgia and graduated in 1959 from the University of Georgia, with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. After graduation he enrolled in the Air National Guard, spending two months in basic training before moving to New York, where he began a career in...

.

This is the first professional organization for thriller authors. The first thriller festival (ThrillerFest) for readers was held in June 2006 in Scottsdale

Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, at which the International Thriller Writers Awards

International Thriller Writers Awards

The International Thriller Writers Awards are awarded by International Thriller Writers at the annual Thrillerfest conferences for outstanding work in the field since 2006.-Award winners:2006*Thrillermaster: Clive Cussler...

 for outstanding work in the field were announced. The first anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

 of all-original thriller short stories entitled Thriller

Thriller (book)

Thriller is a compilation of 30 thriller short stories edited by James Patterson.-James Penney's New Identity by Lee Child:In Laney, California, a man named James Penney is fired after seventeen years on the job. Infuriated, James burns down his house and starts a new life. However, the fire had...

, edited by James Patterson

James Patterson

James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...

, was released in June 2006 by Mira

Mira Books

Mira Books is a book publishing imprint of Harlequin Enterprises that focuses on mainstream fiction. It was launched in 1994.-Profile:MIRA publishes a range of fiction from thrillers to fantasy, chick-lit to historical fiction...

 publishers.

See also

• Thriller
• Conspiracy thriller
• Techno-thriller
  Techno-thriller
  Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...
  
  
• Thriller film
• Spy fiction
  Spy fiction
  Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...
  
  
• Crime fiction
  Crime fiction
  Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
  
  
• Fiction
  Fiction
  Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
  
  
• Mystery fiction
  Mystery fiction
  Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
  
  
• Detective fiction
  Detective fiction
  Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
  
  
• Whodunit
  Whodunit
  A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
  
  
• List of thriller authors
• List of authors
• List of crime writers
• List of mystery writers
• List of detective fiction authors

External links

• International Thriller Writers website