The McDermid debut award – a new award from the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Awards – seeks to celebrate and platform the best debut crime writers in the UK.
2021 London Writers Awards alumna, Nilesha Chauvet (Her Two Lives, 2024) and 2022 alumni Chris Bridges (Sick to Death, 2025) are both shortlisted for the prize.
You can listen to Nilesha, Chris and David Goodman, another shortlisted author for the prize, in conversation, on the prize website.
Prize winners will be announced at the opening ceremony of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on Thursday 17 July.
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The London Writers Awards is our annual writer development programme, designed to launch the careers of writers underrepresented in UK publishing, including those who are Black, Asian and Global Majority, low-income, working-class upbringing, LGBTQIA+, and d/Deaf and disabled. The Awards are free to participate in, bursaries are available for writers on a low-income and there is also an access fund for disabled writers.
Submissions for the 2026 programme will open in September.