Writers in Paradise has announced a 2027 workshop in crime fiction, to be led by Laura Lippman. The program is designed for writers engaged in novels where a crime serves as the narrative engine. In her description of the workshop, Lippman notes that no formula for great crime fiction exists, and that the emphasis will fall counter-intuitively on character rather than plotting. The guiding principle is that crime novels succeed when characters remain true to themselves—though, as Raymond Chandler observed, a man may still enter through the door with a gun. Applicants are asked to submit the opening 25 pages of a novel-in-progress, followed by a one-page synopsis as page 26. The synopsis should include a brief paragraph summarizing the book and indicating the project's status—whether it is an unfinished first draft, a completed first draft, or a completed draft that has undergone multiple revisions. If the submitted portion begins later in the manuscript, the synopsis must also provide a detailed account of the preceding pages leading up to the excerpt. The workshop is structured around the craft of character-driven crime fiction, and the submission materials are calibrated to assess both the writer's prose and their command of the larger narrative architecture. There is a $25 application fee. The deadline for submissions is November 2, 2026.