The Crime Writers’ Association

The Board

The Board The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) is a company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales (no. 3495776). It’s a non-campaigning, non-sectarian body. Our primary objective is to promote the prestige and appreciation ...


Awards & competitions

Awards & Competitions The CWA hosts a number of awards and competitions. Many of these are for books nominated by publishers and selected by independent judging panels, others are awards made by the CWA or other bodies, such as libraries. Yet ot...


Gold Dagger

Gold Dagger This award is for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK during the judging period. The broadest definition of the crime novel applies. Eligible books include thr...


New Chair for the CWA

At the CWA AGM on the 28th March 2015 L C Tyler was voted in as new Chair of the CWA. L C (Len) Tyler is a British writer of comic crime fiction. His Elsie and Ethelred mysteries feature Ethelred Tressider, a crime writer, and Elsie Thirkettle, his l...


CWA Brings Writers, Venues and Book Groups Together in National Crime Reading Month in May

May will be a time for murder and mayhem as National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) makes a welcome return – and the organisers are urging writers and venues to become involved. NCRM, which has run for a number of years, is a unique literary festival t...


ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction This Dagger is for any non-fiction work on a crime-related theme by an author of any nationality as long as the book was first published in the UK in English during the judging period. The Dagger encompasses, tho...


Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation

Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation Sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski. This award is for crime novels (defined by the broadest definition to include thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction) as long as the book was not originally wr...


Gold Dagger

Gold Dagger This award is for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK during the judging period. The broadest definition of the crime novel applies. Eligible books include thr...


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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