The Debut Dagger Award 2024: Longlist Announcement

Leigh Russell has had over thirty novels traditionally published. Best known for her million selling Geraldine Steel crime series, she writes a popular cozy crime series inspired by her daughter’s rescue puppy.

Leigh has an MA in English Literature from the University of Kent. Before she began writing full time, she taught secondary school English. She runs creative writing courses for adults in Greece, France and Italy, as well as the UK, where she has taught in prisons and universities.

Leigh likes to support aspiring writers and is Chair of Judges for the Crime Writers Association’s prestigious Debut Dagger Award, and an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. In addition to these supportive roles, Leigh is a sought after freelance editor. Leigh lives in London, near her daughters and granddaughter.

Learn more about Leigh’s books: http://leighrussell.co.uk

Dea Parkin is Competitions Coordinator of the CWA, was formerly General Coordinator and has been an Associate Member since 2012. She owns editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback and spends much of her time editing novels. Dea facilitates the CWA’s Debut Dagger competition as well as the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize and the Dagger in the Library.  She is herself a fiction writer and playwright, and has published a book of accessible poetry: Any Other Business. Her short story ‘The Sound and the Fury’ appears in the most recent CWA anthology, Music of the Night.