Dagger Day, Part II: The Debut Dagger

The CWA began its Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers back in 1998, and the winner of that was Joolz Denby (known primarily as a poet and spoken-word artist) for STONE BABY. To say that the competition, which requires entrants to submit the opening 3000 words and a 500-word synopsis of a novel, has a good track record of producing published writers is to understate considerably. Let’s look at it year by year:

2003: Kirsty Evans wins for THE CUCKOO CLOCK after making the shortlist the previous year. Although not published yet, the chances are good she will be. Margaret Dumas is highly commended for SPEAK NOW, just out now from Poisoned Pen Press.

2002:  Ilona van Mil wins for SUGARMILK FALLS, which will be published next year by Picador (UK) and McLelland & Stewart (Canada). Paul Southern was shortlisted for THE CRAZE, released by Century in late 2003.

2001:  Edward Wright won for CLEA’S MOON, which landed him a multi-year contract with Orion (UK) and Putnam (US). Edwin Thomas was highly commended for THE BLIGHTED CLIFFS, which was published by Bantam UK in 2003 with the sequel, THE CHAINS OF ALBION, following in 2004. As well, Thomas writes a Byzantine-set series, published by Century,  under the name Tom Harper. Also appearing on the shortlist was Allan Guthrie (aka Allan Buchan) for the book that became TWO-WAY SPLIT, the much-acclaimed book published by PointBlank Press, and Adrian Magson, one of the inaugural authors of the Creme de la Crime imprint that launched a few months ago.

The CWA doesn’t provide full reports on previous years, but 2000’s winner was Simon Levack, whose debut novel DEMON IN THE AIR made itself known earlier this year, and 1999 saw Caroline Carver (aka Seed) winning for Blood Junction and landing a contract with Orion that’s led to the publication of three books overall.  Evidently, Barbara Cleverly was a shortlistee (not certain of the year) and there may be other published writers who began their careers by placing well in the competition.

So one or more of the dozen or so writers on this year’s shortlist, which is very international this year, may well be in local bookstores in the not-too-distant future.