The Crime Writers’ Association

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...


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...


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...


Escaping from Lockdown with JC Briggs

Much I have I travelled in the realms of gold … So wrote John Keats in his sonnet On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, which book took him to ‘goodly states and kingdoms.’ Reading took him to far-flung places where he would never go, and im...


Crime Writers in Residence – at home with Jim Eldridge

The CRA: Please tell us a little about yourself and the books you write. I have been a writer for almost 50 years, the first 30 as a scriptwriter, then writing children's books, and - since 2016 - writing historical crime fiction for adults. My curr...


Slaughter in Southwold

The Friends of Southwold Library present: Slaughter in Southwold, the Southwold Library Crime Writers Festival. Enjoy talks from authors including Reverend Richard Coles, Jane Casey, Nicci French, Elly Griffiths, Tom Hindle, Cara Miller,  Jacquelin...


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