Month-Long Crime Wave Predicted To Hit UK in June National Crime Writing Month is Back!

Lucy Santos credit Southern Retro ,jpg

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Director, Lucy Santos, (Left-credit Southern Retro) explains why it would be criminal to miss the UK’s fourth annual celebration of crime writing old and new.

‘ From Bristol CrimeFest at the end of May to the annual CWA Dagger Awards Dinner and the presentation of the Diamond Dagger to LEE CHILD, we will be working in partnership with many organisations, volunteers and our own Crime Readers’ Association to bring a wide range of killer events to crime fiction fans.

‘From Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight (plus Le Havre’s 11^th Ancres Noir Festival) libraries, bookstores and literary venues will be putting on talks, signings, displays and events exploring the latest and best crime-writing, as well as giving readers the chance to discover (or rediscover) many classic writers.’

You can find details of all the events around the country on the CWA microsite: www.crimewritingmonth.co.uk.

‘There is a wonderful range of over one hundred events,’ Lucy says.  ‘For instance, Killers, Glenn Chandler’s new play about Britain’s worst serial killers is on in Brighton.  Ann ‘Vera’ Cleeves will be Inside the criminal mind at Cheltenham Science Festival (just one of her many events) and self-styled ‘pathology poet’ Valerie Laws will perhaps be rhyming ‘autopsy’ with who-know-what in Hartlepool!

‘Then there’s retired detective Inspector R C Bridgestock turning Crime Fact into Crime Fiction on the Isle of Wight; a plethora of crime writers at Felixstowe Festival; Kate Charles describing A Year In The Life of A Crimewriter at the Ludlow Fringe Festival; and Pauline Rowson and Peter Lovesey putting the CSI into Basingstoke Festival.

‘Perhaps Southwold Library’s Slaughter in the Scout Hut has the most intriguing title, although Nottingham Library’s Crimewriters And Other Liars might tell it like it is.’

But that isn’t all.  The CWA is proud to announce that the National Crime Writing Month has a major virtual presence thanks to the Crime Readers’ Association.  CWA members and readers will be blogging three times a week and there will be at least six giveaways.   Also, on our Facebook page each week, we’ll be asking for your views on the crime writing genre.

‘2013 is also the CWA 60^th anniversary so during National Crime Writing Month we will be launching other events and initiatives to celebrate this Jubilee and look back over the history of the CWA.

‘And, finally, crime writers from around the country will gather for the CWA Dagger Awards dinner to see the presentation of dagger awards including the Debut, Non-Fiction, Dagger in the Library, International, Short Story, Ellis Peters Historical Dagger and the Diamond Dagger, which this year will be awarded to Lee Child. On that occasion we will also be announcing the longlists for the Gold, Steel and John Creasey Daggers.’

The main website – www.thecwa.co.uk - gives more information about each of these as well as details of past winners.