The Crime Writers’ Association

CWA Daggers Longlists announced for 2022

The 2022 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced. Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and...


Librarians Asked to Nominate Authors for CWA Dagger in the Library 2019

Libraries are now voting for the winner of the Dagger in the Library 2019, after Martin Edwards carried off the award in 2018. The CWA’s Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admi...


Criminal Critiques

What are Criminal Critiques? Criminal Critiques is the CWA’s critique service for aspiring crime fiction writers, to help you polish your writing and prepare your manuscript for submission to agents and publishers, or for competitions such as the ...


The Entry Process

The Entry Process There are four kinds of Dagger, differentiated by how they are nominated. See below for an explanation of the different entry processes, and who may nominate for each Dagger. Please do not hesitate to contact the Dagger Liaison Or...


Debut Dagger Longlist Announcement

Each year, the Crime Writers' Association hosts the Daggers, our crime writing awards, which include the Debut Dagger. The award aims to support, promote, and celebrate crime writers of all kinds—both fiction and non-fiction—and of all ages, abil...


Benefits for Corporate and Associate Members

Benefits for Corporate and Associate Members We offer a range of benefits for corporate and associate members. Take advantage of yours below. The CRA website and newsletters The CRA website and accompanying newsletters CRA News and Case File...


The CWA launches 2016 Dagger In The Library nominations

The Crime Writers’ Association has asked book lovers across the nation to nominate their favourite crime authors for the 2016 Dagger In The Library award. This literary prize is a unique part of the Dagger Awards because the nominations are mad...


The CWA Remembers David Stuart Davies

The CWA has lost one of its most loyal members in David Stuart Davies, a novelist, editor, and playwright who achieved an international reputation as an expert on Sherlock Holmes. David was born in Huddersfield, the town where he lived for much of...


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...


Staying Accountable

Even writers don’t feel like writing all of the time. When you’re part-way through your book and the rest of it stretches out ahead of you like an insurmountable task, the temptation to do something else instead can become strong, and if you’ve...


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