Anna Caig was highly commended in the then Debut Dagger competition in 2020. On February 2026, her debut novel The Wise Witch of Orkney, a historical thriller exploring women’s hidden lives during the time of the witch trials, will be published by Black & White, part of Bonnier Books. She talks about the crucial boost the award provided to her writing career.

Like many writers, it’s been my goal since childhood to be a published author. I was that kid, obsessed with Jo March and Titty Walker, scribbling ‘novels’ in notebooks.

Over the years, I started more stories than I can count, but never finished any – and then life took over. I got a sensible job in marketing and made a family. It wasn’t until I was approaching my fortieth birthday that I gave myself a shake – not only had I not accomplished this big life goal, I hadn’t even given it a proper shot. So, we saved up enough money for me to take a year’s career break – and I wrote my first novel.

That novel got seven full manuscript requests from agents and publishers. Surely, this was all going to end in magnificent success? Absolutely not. As these requests turned, slowly but surely, into rejections and never-ending ghostings, I returned to work.

But something strange had happened – despite the epic quantity of failure, I’d found the thing that made me feel fulfilled and happy. So, the saving and the planning began again. I started a business helping writers connect with readers and market their own work, wondering if there would even be demand for that sort of support. It turned out there was – the business took off and I gave up my in-house comms job.

I wrote another book, The Spae-Wife, and entered the Debut Dagger competition in 2020. This was when everything changed. My entry was longlisted, then shortlisted, then highly commended. I was signed by a superstar agent and as a result, my writing career was on a whole different trajectory.

It wasn’t a magic wand – things haven’t been smooth sailing, but are they ever? The Spae-Wife didn’t sell to a publisher. But my Debut Dagger experience was a crucial boost for me at an important time – and the feedback we received from editors helped to shape The Wise Witch of Orkney, which will be my debut novel. The book tells the story of Elspet Balfour, a wise woman from Orkney who is summoned to court, where she must live disguised as a noblewoman right under the nose of the witch-hunting King James VI.

My advice to any writers considering whether to enter their work in the Emerging Dagger competition is: do it! It’s an excellent way to get your work seen by industry professionals – and it may even lead to great things.

In the meantime, if you’re in the market for a historical thriller that explores women’s hidden lives in the early days of the witch trials, please do give The Wise Witch of Orkney a try.