The Crime Writers’ Association

CWA Debut Dagger Writing Competition 2021 Now Open for Entries

Aspiring authors are invited to submit the opening of their novel to the coveted Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Debut Dagger competition 2021. The international writing competition opened for entries on October 1. Entrants must send in their firs...


Ann Cleeves and Cath Staincliffe

A special pre-Festival event with two award-winning, bestselling crime writers. Cath Staincliffe is a novelist, radio playwright and the creator of ITV’s hit series, Blue Murder, and the Scott & Bailey novels, based on the popular TV series, a...



Crime Writers in Residence: at home with Holly Watt

The CRA: Please tell us a little about yourself and the books you write. My name is Holly Watt, and I write novels about a journalist called Casey Benedict who investigates stories that take her all over the world. The first one - To The Lions, whi...


Pauline Rowson at Totton Library

Adventure, mystery, heroes and the sea have always held a fascination for Pauline Rowson so it wasn’t surprising that she turned to crime – writing that is – and created an exciting series of marine based crime novels set against the atmospher...


12 Criminally Good Hints for Crime Writing by Laraine Stephens

by Laraine Stephens   Start with reading in the crime genre. You'll pick up how different authors approach their craft. You’ll learn to recognise good writing and bad writing. Also, there’s great advice in books and blogs about how to ...


Alibis in the Archives

Back by popular demand, Alibis in the Archive (in association with the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club) returns for a third year to bring some of the UK’s best-loved crime writers to Hawarden. Over a weekend of talk sessions and...


Kemptown Bookshop

Cathy Hayward of Kemptown Bookshop talks to Elly Griffiths Cathy Hayward is only the third owner of Kemptown Bookshop, Brighton’s oldest independent bookstore. She was a long-time fan of the shop, which has been on St George’s Road since 1976,...


CWA Announce Longlists for Prestigious Crime Writing Daggers

The Crime Writers Association announced the much anticipated longlists for the annual Dagger awards at a reception during CrimeFest in Bristol on the evening of Friday 19 May. The Chair of the CWA, Martin Edwards, author of The Golden Age of Murder, ...


Debut Dagger Checklist

Have you followed the rules? This is the easy bit, so don’t risk disqualification by exceeding the word limit (don’t do this, not by even a few words) or forget to take your name off the manuscript. Word count for the entry form is that o...


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