Linwood Barclay, our first chair in Canada is currently lodged at the top of the charts in the UK and elsewhere, and was nominated for the Thriller Award for Best Novel at ThrillerFest 2008.







Australia's doctor-turned-thriller-writer Kathryn Fox was another ThrillerFest star and a regular at writers' festivals around the world.








In Ireland, Pat Mullan, a veteran of ITW since the early days is leading the charge.








From Bangkok, Timothy Hallinan, creator of the highly memorable travel writer Poke Rafferty, is bringing in the growing band of writers based there.
 






We're very lucky to have one of the biggest names in South African crime fiction, Mike Nicol, who has been busily recruiting in a region where the genre is growing at an incredible pace, largely, and unfairly, unnoticed by the outside world.





And in the U.K. we have the very talented and prolific Michael Jecks, whose mastery of the medieval murder has won him international acclaim. As a former chairman of the UK Crime Writers' Association, Mike brings with him an enormous range of experience and his customary boundless enthusiasm.




Our immediate goal is simple: to bring in more members from outside the US and make ITW a truly international organization. Once we have sufficient numbers then we can look to establishing the kind of projects such as anthologies for which we're becoming known, work that spreads the word about our talented members and helps ITW grow at the same time.

We're also keen to listen to and learn from our growing membership around the world. I was lucky enough to talk to a number of South African writers, Mike Nicol among them, on a recent tour to that big, brave beautiful country. Their talent and energy deserves a  much wider audience - and we're determined to help South African authors achieve it. Jassy Mackenzie is the first SA author to appear in the Big Thrill - you can read more about her in an interview by Robert Gregory Browne here. We're sure Jassy will be the first of many from her country to make her mark in the U.S. and other countries - so do stay tuned for more news.

Writing is a universal craft and we see no reason why, in the 21st century, an authors' organisation needs be confined by physical and geographical boundaries. Authors from outside the U.S. are as welcome in these pages and projects, such as our debut authors' program, as everyone else. Having spent the last ten days touring South Africa and meeting some of our new members, I don't have any doubt we have a lot to learn from them, too.
 
Recently, in a two-day period, eleven new authors joined ITW from South Africa alone. Thanks to the enthusiasm of our regional chairs this young organisation known as the International Thriller Writers has embarked on the next stage in its mission to spread the word about popular fiction to the international audience at large. If there's one thing this writer has learned above all from ITW it's this: the more we work together, the better we serve everyone, authors and readers alike. The 'I' in ITW isn't there to look pretty. We mean it as this fantastic team of regional chairs surely shows.

David Hewson
International Vice President