Published authors
Find out how the CWA can support and promote you
CWA Daggers 2025 Winners Announced!
Winner announced for the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2025!
Unsupervised Dead Women by Helen Gray wins Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2025
Welcome, Nadine Matheson, Incoming CWA Chair
The CWA welcomes our new Chair, Nadine Matheson, as well as new board members Ajay Chowdhury and David Beckler. Congratulations also to incoming vice-chairs Victoria Dowd and Maxim Jakubowski. Read more about our board here.
Nominations for the 2026 Daggers are now open!
About the CWA
The CWA promotes, supports and celebrates crime writing, and writers of all crime fiction and non-fiction from across the globe. We’re proud to be a growing, thriving community with membership encompassing authors of all ages and at every stage of their careers.
Find out more about who can join the CWA and the benefits we provide:
Looking for a good read?
Search for an author, title or character, or discover books in different sub-genres.
We’re here to help
Publishers, editors, agents & bloggers
How the CWA can put you in touch with the latest crime writing
Aspiring writers
Get inspired and get advice with Criminal Contenders!
Crime readers
Get the inside track on the latest crime books and authors.
Libraries
We want to help you promote crime writing
Booksellers
Let us work with you to support crime writing.
Literary festivals and organisations
We’ll help you to celebrate crime writing.
Are you an Emerging Author?
Are you an unpublished writer who is serious about crime writing? You may qualify for Emerging Author membership with the CWA. Find out more about how to apply and the benefits of memebrship.
Critiques
Criminal Critiques is the CWA’s critique service for aspiring crime fiction writers.
Editing
Need more in-depth help? Closer guidance? A full structural editing report perhaps, or maybe your MS is ready for copy-editing? We are now working with professional editing partners Fiction Feedback.
The Daggers
The CWA Dagger awards celebrate the best in crime writing.
