THE DEBUT DAGGER
The Debut Dagger is the CWA's annual new-writing competition, which is open to anyone in the world who writes in the English language, but whose work has not been published before. Most previous winners, as well as some of those who made the short list but did not win (such as Stephen Booth and Louise Penny) have subsequently had their books published.
The entrants submit an opening chapter and synopsis; the winning entry is selected by a panel of agents and publishers.
The Debut Dagger began life in 1998 as The CWA New Writers Competition. It is sponsored by leading publishers Orion.
Previous Winners
For more information about the winners listed below, click the appropriate year.
2012: Beached - Sandy Gingras
2011: What Hidden Lies - Michele Rowe
2010: A Place of Dying - Patrick Eden
2009: The Pathologist - Catherine O’Keefe
2008: Western Fringes - Amer Anwar
2007: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
2006: Imp: Being the Lost Notebooks of Rufus Wilmot Griswold In the Matter of the Death of Edgar Allan Poe - Otis Twelve (D V Wesselmann)
2005: The Woman Before Me - Ruth Dugdall
2004: The Doll Makers - Penny Grubb (won as Ellen Grubb)
2003: The Cuckoo - Kirsty Evans
2002: Sugarmilk Falls - Ilona van Mil
2001: Clea's Moon - Edward Wright
2000: A Flowery Death - Simon Levack
1999: Blood Junction - Caroline Carver (won as Caroline Seed)
1998: Stone Baby - Joolz Denby
