The CWA Debut Dagger

Fancy a stab at Crime Writing?

All these authors were short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger Competition. Think you’ve got what it takes to be a published author? Read on.

The 2013 Competition has now closed and the judges are sifting through the entries to draw up a shortlist. This will be announced at Crimefest in May. The overall winner will be revealed at the CWA Awards ceremony in July.

This year’s competition ran from 1 November 2012 until 2 February 2013. The dates for next year have yet to be finalised but they will be similar.

Sign up for our free mailing list (see foot of page) to be emailed a newsletter when the shortlist and eventual winner are announced. Later this year, a further newasletter will advise of the opening date for the 2014 competition. Past newsletters have been archived here and they contain useful hints and tips to help you perfect your entry.

Winning the Debut Dagger doesn’t guarantee you’ll get published. But it does mean your work will be seen by leading agents and top editors, who have signed up over two dozen winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger competitors.

The Debut Dagger is open to anyone who has not yet had a novel published commercially. The first prize is £700 and all shortlisted entrants will receive a professional assessment of their entries.

Building on success

The string of successes below has been joined – some would say capped – by Belinda Bauer. Having been Highly Commended in the 2008 Debut Dagger competition, Belinda’s first novel Blacklands won the 2010 CWA Gold Dagger, and was selected for More4 television’s book club.

Inaugural winner Joolz Denby was short-listed in 2005 for the Orange Prize for Fiction, while 2001 winner Ed Wright was awarded the 2005 Shamus award for best P.I. novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. Allan Guthrie won the 2007 Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split, developed from his entry shortlisted in 2001. Barbara Cleverly, shortlisted in 1999, won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2004.

Louise Penny, highly commended by the judges of the 2004 Debut Dagger, was awarded the 2006 CWA New Blood Dagger, whilst Orion published I’m Half-sick of Shadows in November 2011 – the fourth by book in the popular Flavia de Luce series by our 2007 winner Alan Bradley. In addition, the Flavia de Luce mysteries have been optioned for television by director Sam Mendes.

Another success story is 2001 shortlisted author Adrian Magson, Recently described by the Daily Mail as “a classic crime star in the making”, he has had three crime fiction series published by three different publishers. In addition, his novel Red Station - the first Harry Tate spy thriller - has been optioned by Hollywood Production company Benderspink ('A History of Violence').

Follow this link to find out how to enter the competition. To receive regular reminders of the competition deadline, as well as useful hints and tips, sign up for our free mailing list. There’s a form at the foot of this page. More help and guidance can be found on our What to Write and Style Guide pages, and in the mailing list archive. If you have any questions, please first check the frequently asked questions page to see if your query is answered there.