The Crime Writers’ Association

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller, ‘one simply has to turn the pages’. Eligible books in this category are thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction...


Essex Book Festival’s Golden Age of Crime

CWA members Helen Barrell, Simon Brett and Isabelle Grey are hosting various events within the Essex Book Festival's homage to Golden Age crime writing - and crime writing today! Join Essex Book Festival for a weekend of sleuthing in Southend-on-...


Alibis in the Archive

The world-renowned Gladstone Library on the North Wales/Cheshire border is to host a splendid feast of juicy crime writing dishes: Alibis in the Archive. The programme runs from the evening of Friday 9 June to Sunday 11 June 2017 and kicks off with ...


Cake and Crime Evening with Cath Staincliffe

Wednesday 9th October- 6-7.30pm, Widnes Library Tickets Early bird £5 (book before 1st October) / Full price £7.50 (Cake included in ticket price) Book online via the library website or at any Halton Library Book lovers, thriller readers and an...


Notes on Word Count for CWA Writing Competitions

Different competitions have different rules – and different levels of rigour in the way they apply them. For the Debut Dagger we are super-strict. We ask for entries not to exceed 3,000 words (1,500 words for the synopsis) by even a word. The ti...


The CWA Daggers

The Daggers Shortlists Have Been Announced! On 10 May, the shortlists for the 2024 Daggers were announced to much fanfare at CrimeFest in Bristol.  You can see the shortlists by clicking on the individual Daggers below. Congratulations to all of ou...


CWA Dagger Awards – Shortlist

The Crime Writers’ Association has unveiled the shortlisted authors for five categories in the 2015 Dagger awards during an official reception at this year’s CRIMEFEST in Bristol.   Authors, publishers and delegates assembled to hear the Dag...


Trying Again, by Sherry Rankin

I do not have a risk-taking personality. The whole idea of attempting to find an agent and get published always seemed so daunting to me that, for decades, I was afraid even to try. I always loved to write, however. So a few years ago, I took stock o...


Erin Kelly at Gliterary Lunch, London

If you want to treat your clients, friends or simply yourselves to a entertaining afternoon listening to two bestselling authors talk about what lies behind their latest books while you enjoy good food, wine and conversation, please come and join us ...


Crime #2 at Havering Literary Festival

Isabelle Grey has published four novels in a crime series set in Essex and featuring DI Grace Fisher – Good Girls Don’t Die, Shot Through The Heart and The Special Girls. The fourth book, Wrong Way Home, a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, is...


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