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The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it. Margery Allingham

Every year since 2014, the CWA and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international competition for a short story of up to 3,500 words.

Our mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery, and not only that, but one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great mystery story.

Entries are invited from all writers, published or unpublished, writing in English.

2026 shortlist

2026 longlist

Author Title
Tim Adler Shirley Temple Investigates
Nicholas Avery St Peter Investigates
J D Brinkworth Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area
E L Faull Spider
Ruth Goldstraw Angling
Sara Grant Only the Truth
Michael Hill The Wind Blows Where it Wishes
Alyssa Mackay The Charlatan
Camilla Macpherson A Corpse at the Ceilidh
P W Morrison The Mysterious Case of Not-Johnny Tan
Ajit Nagpal The Tenth Night
Glyn Powell Foxed Rotters

What you need to know

The international Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize is a competition open to all – both published and unpublished authors from all over the world – and is for short stories written in English of up to 3,500 words. All that we ask is that: the story was originally written in English; has not been previously published anywhere; has not been shortlisted for this competition; or won any other competition.

Please follow Margery’s definition of a mystery to be in with the best of chance of winning the prize.

“The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”

The way a submitted story matches this definition is awarded greater weighting in the scoring than any other criteria.

Entries are submitted via our shop and cost £25.

Win fantastic prizes

The winner receives a generous cash prize of £500 and 1-year CWA membership.

How to write a winning story

We asked Martin Edwards, the inaugural winner of the CWA/Margery Allingham Short Story competition for 6 great tips and here they are:

  • Read the great short stories (not just crime fiction) and ask yourself what makes them great
  • Don’t kid yourself that writing a short story is much easier than writing a novel
  • Think about the effect you want the story to have on the reader
  • The opening needs to arrest attention
  • The end must leave the reader with a sense of satisfaction
  • In between the beginning and the end – don’t waste a word

Find out more about Martin here and about Crafting Crime, his online crime-writing course here.

Dates for your diary

2026 Competition

  • Closing date: 6pm GMT 27 February 2026.
  • Longlist: 11 April at the CWA Members’ Northern Symposium
  • Shortlist: 1 May
  • Winner: 30 May 6.30pm at the NCRM launch at Criminally Good Books, York

All announcements will be on the website as well as at any in-person event.

2027 Competition

  • Entries open: 1 September 2026
  • Entries close: 28 January 2027

Who to contact

Read winning stories

Promote the competition

Help us champion short stories and crime writers by spreading the word. There’s a 2026 A5 flyer for you to download here.

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