The CWA Dagger Awards -- (Crime Writers Association)

"Readers and authors alike often wonder how the CWA Dagger nominees and winners are selected. The following should answer some of those questions, as well as giving a comprehensive list of all the winners since they were instituted.

Only British publishers can submit entries for the awards, and the submissions must have been published in the English language in the United Kingdom within a limited period of time. The number of awards, as well as their names, have varied over the years. In part this was due to sponsorship: in the mid 1990s the names of four of the Daggers (Gold, Silver, Non Fiction, and Short Story) were expanded to include that of its sponsor, The Macallan, distillers of one of Britain's top whiskies. Between 2006 and 2008 the Gold and International Daggers carried the names of their sponsor, the Duncan Lawrie Private Bank.

Since publishers can submit the same book for all relevant awards, it is theoretically possible for a historical crime thriller by a debuting author to win the Gold, Creasey, Historical and Steel Daggers.

The majority of this summary was compiled by Adrian Muller, a UK based freelance journalist specialising in crime fiction, and organiser of events including Crimefest. Since 2002 the updating has been continued by Cornwell Internet, the CWAís webmasters."

CWA Dagger Awards 2010 are to be announced May

CWA Dagger Awards 2009

The Crime Writers’ Association is pleased to announce the winners of these CWA Daggers:

William Brodrick wins the CWA Gold Dagger for A Whispered Name
The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards John Hart wins the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for The Last Child
Johan Theorin wins the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for Echoes from The Dead
Philip Kerr wins the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for If The Dead Rise Not.