For 20 years the CWA has been encouraging new writing with its Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers. The submissions are judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents, and the short listed entries are sent to publishers and agents.
The Debut Dagger is open to anyone who has not yet had a novel published commercially. All shortlisted entrants will receive a professional assessment of their entries. Winning the Debut Dagger doesn’t guarantee you’ll get published. But it does mean your work will be seen leading agents and top editors, who have signed up over two dozen winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger competitors.
But entering the Debut Dagger is more than just entering a competition. You can also join our community, via the Facebook Group giving you the opportunity to ask questions, share your experiences and helping out your fellow writers.
You can also join our free mailing list The Debuts to receive news, tips and exclusive content.
Debut Dagger 2018 Longlist
| Title | Author |
| The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon | Bill Crotty |
| The Infant of Prague | Nicole Wells |
| Sharps and Flats | Chris Dixon |
| Orange612 | Martin Ungless |
| Grabbed | Peter Lewenstein |
| The Last Googling of Beth Bailly | Luke Melia |
| Riverine Blood | Joseph James |
| Death Be Drammed | Coleen Steele |
| Original Sins | Linda McLaughlin |
| Trust Me, I’m Dead | Sherryl Clark |
Leigh RussellHailed as ‘a brilliant talent’ by Jeffery Deaver and ‘a deeply human voice’ by Peter James, Leigh Russell writes the internationally bestselling Geraldine Steel series of psychological crime thrillers.
As well as receiving rave reviews on numerous renowned sites like CrimeTime,Crimesquad and
Eurocrime, her books have attracted glowing reviews in journals as diverse as The Times, The New York Journal of Books and Star Magazine, to name just a few.
Frankie is Publishing Director for Commercial Fiction at Transworld. As Editorial Director, Frankie was responsible for last year’s much talked-about The Widow by Fiona Barton.
Katherine ArmstrongKatherine Armstrong is Editorial Director for crime & thrillers at Bonnier Zaffre. She has worked in publishing for twelve years, first at Faber and Faber and then at Sphere, before joining Bonnier Zaffre in summer 2016.
Her main interest is crime fiction.
Stephanie Glencross is a literary agent with Gregory & Company. Her main task is editing and her special interest crime fiction.
Sherry Rankin lives in Abilene, Texas, where she has taught writing and literature at a local university for twenty years. She has written scholarly articles and worked as an editing consultant and ghostwriter, but her novel Strange Fire is her first venture into novel-length fiction.
STRANGE FIRE
In the turbulent borderlands of South Texas, campus security guard Abel Morales grows suspicious when a university student mysteriously dies. He finds a slip of paper in the dead boy’s room bearing the handwritten words “Strange Fire,” a clue that starts him on a dangerous path to uncover a complex and unspeakably monstrous crime.
