Ann Cleeves Press. Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "Raven Black". Cleeves studied English at Sussex University but dropped out. She then took up various jobs including cook, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters. The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatized as the TV detective series "Vera" and the Jimmy Perez novels as the series "Shetland". In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics The Vera List Center for Art and Politics The Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at The New School, founded in 1992 and named in honor of the late philanthropist Vera G. List, organizes public events that respond to the role of the arts in society and their relationship to the sociopolitical climate in which they are created. It remains the only organization with the exclusive mission to investigate the intersection for art and politics. Its director is Carin Kuoni. The Vera List Center for Art and Politics hosts public programs that are articulated by the academic community