The Daggers
Discover the CWA Daggers – the premier awards for crime writing in the United Kingdom.
Awards & Competitions
The CWA hosts a number of awards and competitions. Many of these are for books nominated by publishers and selected by independent judging panels, while others are awards made by the CWA or other bodies, such as libraries. Yet others are competitions, scored by readers and judged by experts.
Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize
Our annual competition for unpublished short stories – open to all writers, whether published or not.
Emerging Author Dagger
This international competition, open to anyone in the world writing in English, is for a crime novel opening and synopsis. The Emerging Author Dagger is sponsored by Fiction Feedback.
Dagger in the Library
A prize for a body of work by an established writer of crime fiction or non-fiction who has long been popular with borrowers from libraries.
Red Herring Award
A special award made for services to the CWA and crime writing in general.
Hall of Fame
Read about the lives and careers of our prestigious Diamond Dagger winners in our Hall of Fame.
Sponsor a Dagger
Dagger Sponsors gain cachet and recognition throughout the world of crime writing, raise their profile both within the industry and beyond, and earn substantial year-round benefits and marketing exposure from the awards cycle. Are you interested in sponsoring a Dagger? Click here for further information.
The winners archive
A searchable complete list of winners.
Join the CWA
Become part of a thriving community of successful crime writers with invaluable support, expertise and marketing opportunities for all our members.
