The Crime Writers’ Association

Awards & competitions

Awards & Competitions The CWA hosts a number of awards and competitions. Many of these are for books nominated by publishers and selected by independent judging panels, others are awards made by the CWA or other bodies, such as libraries. Yet ot...


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...


Sam Blake – Murder ONE

Sam Blake is the founder of the Murder ONE International Crime Writing Festival – Ireland’s first designated crime festival, taking place in Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, in November 2018. For a first festival the line-up of crime writers...


Daggers Live! – tickets still available

The CWA announces the winners of the 2021 Daggers at 7.30pm on 1 July in an online event where we go to winners live in their living rooms: bit.ly/cwadaggers2021 Our guest speaker will be Abir Mukherjee and our M/C for the evening will be the witty ...


Byte The Book – Valued Voices: How Much is Your Writing Worth?

What's it all about?: Join us for the first of our events at the beautiful Home House (the site of the original Courtauld Institute). Our panel will be discussing the findings of ALCS’ Author Earnings Survey and asking such questions as, how much ...


Discounts for Members

Discounts for Members Your membership of the CWA brings many benefits, including discounts on selected festival tickets, memberships with sister organisations, editing services, and more. Discounts available to CWA members include:The CWA Daggers E...


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...


Make Crime Pay – thriller and crime fiction day

Join us for a packed day of online workshops, talks, interviews with an exciting range of Crime Writing authors. Online via Google Meet As crime and thriller fiction enjoy unparalleled popularity, join us for a packed day of online workshops, t...


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...


Become a crime scene investigator for the day or night …

For all real -life crime fans and forensic science enthusiasts comes 4 exclusive events which reveal the wonders of forensic science in crime scene detection. Join eminent forensic scientists Tracy Alexander and Jo Millington as they guide you throu...


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