The Entry Process

There are four kinds of Dagger, differentiated by how they are nominated. See below for an explanation of the different entry processes, and who may nominate for each Dagger. Please do not hesitate to contact the Dagger Liaison Organiser (DLO) should you require further assistance. dagger.liaison@gmail.com

CWA Dagger Awards Terms and Conditions of Entry

In order to be eligible for entry into the following Daggers, nominations must be submitted by an approved publisher or the traditionally published author of the book or short story. Self-published authors who are members of the CWA are also welcome to do so. Entries are made via our shop.

Publishers

To nominate, publishers need to be traditional publishers and approved by our DLO.
There is a cost attached, payable on nomination. If the author is a fully subscribed CWA member, this cost is discounted by 50%.
There is no limit to how many Daggers a book can be submitted for provided it meets eligibility rules on each and a discount is available for a book submitted into additional awards.
If a book is published first as an ebook, it can be nominated and submitted to judges as a pdf. However, it cannot be nominated again when published in print. If first publication is as an ebook but publishers prefer to wait until print publication before nominating, that’s fine.

Authors

Traditionally published authors: Any author, published by an Approved Publisher in the UK, can self-nominate their book or story provided that the work is relevant to the appropriate award, as defined under Eligibility (section 2), and the first UK edition was published within the specified dates of the Judging Period (section 1). They do not have to be CWA members, but if they are they will be entitled to a 50% discount of the fee.

Self-published authors can self-nominate their book or story if they are a CWA member. A 50% discount applies to titles by CWA members.

Enquiries: dagger.liaison@gmail.com

The judging process

More details, including closing dates and who can enter and how can be found in Terms & Conditions.

Dates for your diary

Entry for the 2026 Daggers is now open.
The longlists for the 2025 Daggers will be announced on 16 April, time and location to be determined.
The shortlists for the 2025 Daggers will be announced on 29 May, time and location to be determined.

The Dagger in the Library

Step 1: Nominations
Borrowers are asked to visit their library and submit their nominations for the award to their librarian. Libraries are asked to submit these nominations to us via our website.

Step 2: Voting
Libraries will be invited to vote for their winner from the nominated authors in the spring. Up to three personnel per library can place a vote.

Step 3: Judging
The judges will review all the nominations and the votes to select the winners.

For detailed information about this competition, please see our Dagger in the Library page.

Enquiries: secretary@thecwa.co.uk.

The Emerging Author Dagger

Sponsored by Fiction Feedback.

The Emerging Author Dagger is open for entries from 1 October and runs to 6pm GMT on the last working day in February the following year.

It is an international competition for unpublished crime novelists looking to get representation or a publishing contract for the first time. There is also a cash prize of £500.

Entries are eligible from writers who have never had a publishing contract for a novel of any kind (over 20,000 words) and who don’t have an agent when the competition closes at the end of February. Entrants may not have self-published their entry or any other piece of fiction of over 20,000 words unless it was removed from public sale five years or more previous to the deadline date.

Entries are submitted by the author via our shop.

Shortlisted entrants have their entries shown to agents and publishers.

Please see our Criminal Contenders blog, Crime Writing Tips, Criminal Critiques and Criminal Editing pages for information and guidance.

Why not sign up to our online newsletters? Or maybe you’d like to join our Criminal Contenders Facebook community. Visit the Criminal Contenders page to do so.

More details, including closing dates and who can enter and how can be found in Terms & Conditions and on the Emerging Author Dagger page.

Please address any queries to the CWA Competitions Coordinator: comps@thecwa.co.uk

The Diamond Dagger

The Diamond Dagger is the highest accolade awarded by the CWA for a lifetime achievement in crime writing.

Nominated by CWA members: all CWA members are each invited to submit a nomination for the award every year, giving their reasons. Voting is advertised in Red Herrings, usually opening in spring and ending in late summer.

The shortlist is agreed by a Diamond Dagger committee specially appointed by the CWA, comprising reviewers and other experts in crime writing and headed by Andrew Taylor, former Diamond Dagger winner and our Diamond Dagger Ambassador. The winner is voted for by former Diamond Dagger winners.

No author can win the Diamond Dagger more than once, and because it is for lifetime achievement then writers past the midpoint in their crime-writing careers are the likely beneficiaries.

Enquiries: coordinator@thecwa.co.uk

Dagger for the Best Crime & Mystery Publisher

The Dagger is awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year. Publishers and specific imprints are nominated by a representative group of leading book reviewers, booksellers, festival organisers, bloggers, literary agents and journalists, with the eventual winner selected from the shortlist by the CWA Board.