The Crime Writers’ Association

The CWA Daggers

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners! On 4 July, the 2024 Daggers winners were announced at the annual Dagger Awards' Dinner in London at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City. To learn more about each award and its 2024 winner, please click on the...


Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery CompetitionHow 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...


Opening Windows, by John Kennedy

A certain writer, arguably lauded for the wrong things but at the same time often underrated, once said something about writing behind closed doors and rewriting with the window open. Well, for me, the Debut Dagger competition opened that window. Get...


How to win £1,000

Enter the CWA’s Margery Allingham short story competition! This is open to published authors as well as unpublished ones. The maximum word count is generous too at 3,500. The deadline is still attainable even if it is a little bit close: March ...


Private: Joffe Books New Publication Prize for Crime Writers of Colour

Joffe Books, in conjunction with bestselling crime writer Dorothy Koomson and literary agent Susan Yearwood, is seeking to discover a new crime fiction writer to join our bestselling list. We are launching a new writing prize for unagented crime fict...


Debut Dagger

Emerging Author Dagger (Debut Dagger) Announcements Congratulations to our 2024 Longlist Authors! See below for details. Shortlist: CrimeFest, Bristol on Friday 10 May, early evening Winner: Dagger Awards Dinner, evening of Thursday 4 Jul...


Crime in the North East Festival

22 & 23 February 2019 Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, Newcastle University. Whodunnit? NCLA in the frame for crime fiction festival. One of the most popular and intriguing forms of fiction comes under suspicion at Newcastle Univ...


Murder in the Library!

Author Talk with Leye Adenle, Alison Bruce & James Carol Celebrate National Libraries Week with the launch of our new bi-monthly Crime Panel, where best-selling authors will visit Chiswick and Osterley Libraries. With the CWA Daggers due to be a...


The Never Game: An evening with Jeffery Deaver

Number one bestselling author Jeffery Deaver returns with a stunning new thriller – the first in an exciting series featuring enigmatic investigator Colter Shaw. Join Jeffery at Heffers, as he talks to Mel McGrath about THE NEVER GAME and life as â...


Reading Party with Lesley Thomson: The Distant Dead

Reading Party with Lesley Thomson: The Distant Dead Cleaner-turned-detective Stella Darnell connects a murder in Tewkesbury Abbey to a decades-old mystery in wartime London. From the number 1 bestselling author of The Detective’s Daughter. London, ...


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