CWA Appoints Elly Griffiths as Booksellers Champion
The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has appointed a new Booksellers Champion as Reading Month begins across the UK. Best-selling author Elly Griffiths has taken on the role which aims to build links between crime authors and bookshops. The C...
CWA appoints Maxim Jakubowski as Publishers’ Liaison Officer
Press Release from the Crime Writers’ Association February 2019 The Crime Writers’ Association has appointed Maxim Jakubowski as its first ever Publishers’ Liaison Officer. Jakubowski, who currently also serves as a CWA Vice Chair, takes up the...
Crime Writers Emerging from Lockdown with Louise Burfitt-Dons
How an escape story inspired The Secret War Some years ago when I was living in Australia I met someone whose family had escaped the Cultural Revolution. The planning required utmost secrecy for the father to organise their ‘trip to Hong Kong to...
2023 winning story
How to Catch a Bullet in a Plate and Other Tricks to Astound - Judith O’Reilly He never performed the trick at a matinee show as he didn’t like to worry the children in the audience. At least there was that, Mrs Conway thought, as the red bloo...
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...
Emerging Author Dagger Rules
Rules and Submission Guidelines Emerging Author Dagger The Emerging Author Dagger (formerly the Debut Dagger), an international competition for the opening of an adult/YA crime novel and synopsis, is aimed at debut writers. The CWA defines a de...
Northern Ireland is Set for NCRM 2024
PRESS RELEASE The Crime Writers Association, National Crime Reading Month NI Crime Writers team up with Libraries NI and local bookstores to celebrate National Crime Reading Month with a host of events across the province throughout June. Fo...
CWA Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition – Winner Announced
The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced the winner of its Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize. Camilla Macpherson beat strong competition with her short story, ‘Heartbridge Homicides’. Camilla lives in The Hague in the Nether...
Join the CWA
Join the CWA Who can join? We offer full membership for those in the UK and overseas who have had published a full length work of crime fiction or non-fiction, and provisional membership for those who have a contract from a recognised publishing ho...
