The Crime Writers’ Association

Debut Dagger

Emerging Author Dagger (Debut Dagger) Announcements Congratulations to our 2024 Shortlist Authors! See below for details. Winner: Dagger Awards Dinner, evening of Thursday 4 July, Leonardo City Hotel, London. All announcements will also appe...


Writers & Artists How To Get Published

Writers & Artists are delighted to be working with Denman College to bring a day of getting to grips with the practicalities of writing. The day includes: a two-hour writing workshop with an author of your choice; plenty of opportunity to network...


Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller, ‘one simply has to turn the pages’. Eligible books in this category are thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction...


The Debuts: What are you going to call it?

Choosing the title of your novel is almost as big a decision as deciding to write it in the first place. Do you go for something quirky and run the risk of people not understanding it – or choose a more obvious title which then doesn’t sound inte...


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...


Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller, ‘one simply has to turn the pages’. Eligible books in this category are thrillers set in any period and include, but are not limited to, spy fiction...


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...


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The Crime Writers’ Association has announced a new sponsor for its annual international writing competition for unpublished writers.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...


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...


Notes on Word Count for CWA Writing Competitions

Different competitions have different rules – and different levels of rigour in the way they apply them. For the Debut Dagger we are super-strict. We ask for entries not to exceed 3,000 words (1,500 words for the synopsis) by even a word. The ti...


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