CWA Margery Allingham Short Story prize to continue until 2024

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) will continue the Margery Allingham Short Story competition for at least another five years and has plans to rename next year's prize.

The Margery Allingham Society, set up to honour and promote the writings of the 1930s crime writer, works with the CWA to operate and fund the writing competition that opens for entries in the autumn on the CWA’s website and closes every February.

Each year the competition, which started in 2014, attracts entries from the UK and overseas and the winners are announced at CrimeFest, the international crime writing convention, in May. The short story can be up to a 3,500 words long and must echo Allingham’s definition of a mystery.

Next year’s competition will emphasise the definition of mystery by Allingham with more points allocated to how well the story matches it, and, just to reinforce the point, it will be renamed the Margery Allingham Short Mystery competition.

This year Ray Bazowski's ‘A Perfect Murderer’, won £500 and two passes to CrimeFest for 2020. Runner-up with ‘Decluttering’ was Rosie de Vekey.

Bazowski' said: "Aspiring writers are routinely told to write what they know. Such advice is less plausible for writers of murder mysteries, especially those who take the point-of-view of murderers, or at least I hope so. In my case, what knowledge I have of the subject is speculative, and entirely incidental to my regular job of teaching politics at York University in Toronto."

Barry Pike, chair of the Margery Allingham Society, said: "We’re very happy to be able to continue our co-sponsorship, along with the CWA, of our short mystery competition for another five years."

Linda Stratmann, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, added: "We are delighted that the CWA’s very rewarding association with the Margery Allingham Society is going to continue."