The Crime Writers’ Association

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

This popular festival returns to the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate on the 20th-23rd July 2017, to mark the 15th annual celebration of the genre. 2017’s Programming Chair Elly Griffiths, the current holder of the CWA Dagger in the Library, has put toge...


Dagger in the Library

Dagger in the Library  The Dagger in the Library 2024 is closed. Thank you for voting! The Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by an established writer of crime fiction or non-fiction who has long been popular with borrowers from...


About the CWA

About the CWA The Crime Writers’ Association was founded in 1953 by John Creasey (pictured). Our overall aim is to support, promote and celebrate this most durable, adaptable and successful of genres. The CWA’s everyday aim is to support writers...


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...


AGM 2024 Voting Form

AGM 2024 Voting Form Voting has now closed....


CWA Announces new Debut Dagger Sponsor

The Crime Writers’ Association has announced a new sponsor for its annual international writing competition for unpublished writers. The CWA Debut Dagger is to be sponsored by ProWritingAid, a platform that operates as a grammar checker, style edi...


Bookshop of the Month – September 2022: The Oundle Bookshop

Joanna Patterson-Gordon of The Oundle Bookshop Talks to William Shaw You’ll find The Oundle Bookshop behind an impressive line of Georgian pillars on Market Place, which is where it’s been for a remarkable 99 years. It’s a traditional bo...


Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2014

Shortlisted


Gail Williams

Last Shakes


Private: Trust your gut: how a Debut Dagger longlisting led to a publishing deal

People often ask me where the initial idea for “Trust Me, I’m Dead” came from, and I talk about an article I read many years ago where one snippet caught my eye, and then stuck in my brain. It was a small thing, about a man who’d left behind ...


The Secrets of Successful Crime Writing with Pauline Rowson

Acclaimed Crime Author Pauline Rowson is the author of nineteen crime novels set against the backdrop of the sea on the South Coast of England. Fourteen of these feature the rugged and flawed Portsmouth copper, Inspector Andy Horton with Dead Passage...


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