The Crime Writers’ Association

Crime Fiction: Past, Present, and Future with Simon Brett

Part of the Open Centre and Online CI Public Talks collection In conversation with OU's Bill Alder, detective fiction author Simon Brett will discuss crime fiction's past, present and future. Please join us on Wednesday 17 April from 13:00-14...


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...


The Big Read with Mari Hannah

Big Read Celebrates Ian Rankin in Landmark Year The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is on tour this summer with its ninth Big Read, hosting free reading group events across Yorkshire. The 2017 Big Read is Ian Rankin’s breakthrough R...


Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation

Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation Sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski. This award is for crime novels (defined by the broadest definition to include thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction) as long as the book was not originally wr...


Come and Chat to CWA Oxford – via Zoom

The Crime Writers Association was founded in 1953 to support, promote and celebrate the crime writing genre. Would you like to chat to some of the CWA Oxford crime writers over a coffee or gin and tonic? All totally virtual, of course, but in every ...


The Life of Crime, with Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards won the highest honour in UK crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger, for his outstanding contribution to the genre. He is President of the Detection Club, a former Chair of the CWA, consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics a...


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...


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...


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