New York’s Crime Fiction Academy – part of the Center for Fiction in the city – is enrolling students for its Fall 2012 semester and there are still some places left on the course. Over 12 weeks, would-be crime authors will attend writing workshops, monthly masterclasses with top authors, reading seminars and special lectures and discussions.

An impressive roster of authors has been rounded up for this Autumn’s proceedings, including Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Thomas H Cook, Linda Fairstein, Susan Isaacs, Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Laura Lippman, Val McDermid, Joyce Carol Oates, Jason Pinter, SJ Rozan and Karin Slaughter. Topics they’ll be discussing include the perfect kill, writing about trails of evidence, and creating heinous villains and believable heroes.

This is the second semester the new Academy will run – the first began in February this year. The course was founded by crime fiction expert and author Jonathan Santlofer, as well as Noreen Tomassi, Executive Director of the Center for Fiction. The average age of attendees is 40, and the intake has included lawyers and even brain surgeons. “I applied to the CFA because I didn’t have the time or money to pursue an MFA. My writing is punchy, but I lacked a solid foundation. This workshop was an opportunity to get the same kind of cogent feedback that I hoped to get from an accredited MFA program. The program’s intensity was exactly what I needed: the CFA is a perfect crime writer’s fat camp,” explains diamond broker and part-time crime author Claire Baiz.

Classes begin 18 September and the fee for the course is $2800. Wow! You’ll need to subimt a 1500-word example of your work and a resume. For more details visit the website. The video below includes Elmore Leonard, Harlan Coben and Lee Child as well as comments from students.