The Crime Writers’ Association

CWA Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) is on the hunt to find the best unpublished short mystery story. Entries are being invited for the 2021 CWA Margery Allingham Short Story competition, with just weeks before deadline closes on 26 February for th...


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...


Private: Winning the Debut Dagger by C J Carver

I entered the Debut Dagger on a complete whim. Despite feeling buoyant having finished my novel Blood Junction, I was hesitating over the entry fee, convinced I’d never win, let alone get shortlisted. It was only because a friend of mine said the...


Crime Writers in Residence – at home with Jem Tugwell

The CRA: Please tell us a little about yourself and the books you write. I’m a crime fiction author with a Crime Writing MA from City University. No Signal is the second book in the iMe series and follows my debut novel Proximity. In a past life,...


CWA Daggers – Shortlists Announced

The Crime Writers’ Association announced the shortlists for this year’s Dagger awards for crime writing at an at an evening drinks reception held at Waterstones Piccadilly on Wednesday 26 July. The CWA Daggers, which are the probably the awards c...


An Introduction to Crime Fiction – Writing workshop

Best-selling crime novelist John Dean is to run an Introduction to Crime Fiction creative writing workshop. John, author of 17 novels, including the recently-published Death List, is published by London-based The Book Folks and is the creator of DCI ...


Twisted Dagger

Twisted Dagger The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers, dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail. Books in this category include psych...


Walter Mosley Awarded CWA Diamond Dagger 2023

Walter Mosley is the 2023 recipient of the highest honour in crime writing, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger. The CWA Daggers are now regarded by the publishing world as the foremost awards hosted in Britain for crime writing....


Robert Richardson R.I.P.

The CWA announces with great sadness the death of author Robert Richardson, one of the most popular and respected figures in the CWA over recent decades. Uniquely, Robert served two distinct terms as Chair of the CWA; in 1993-1994 and 2006-2007, and ...


National Crime Reading Month off to a blazing start!

National Crime Reading Month kicked off with simultaneous launches in London, Belfast and Edinburgh - appropriately in one of Waterstones flagship stores in Piccadilly; No Alibis, an independent bookshop, and in Edinburgh Central Library. In Londo...


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