Short Story Dagger

This award is for any crime short story first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period, whether on its own or within an anthology or collection. Upon publication it must have been for sale to the public, either in print or e-book, through established channels or platforms.

The term short story refers to a work of fiction no shorter than 1,000 and no longer than 15,000 words.

You are able to nominate a full anthology where we consider every story, or an individual story.

Publishers or authors can nominate.

2026 longlist

Author	Title	From	Editor	Publisher
William Boyle	Arlene	Birds, Strangers and Psychos	Maxim Jakubowski	Bedford Square Publishers
SA Cosby	Split Your Silver Tongue	Birds, Strangers and Psychos	Maxim Jakubowski	Bedford Square Publishers
Ragnar Jónasson	Chest	Birds, Strangers and Psychos	Maxim Jakubowski	Bedford Square Publishers
Denise Mina	The Karpman Drama Triangle	Birds, Strangers and Psychos	Maxim Jakubowski	Bedford Square Publishers
Abir Mukherjee	Full Circle	Playing Dead: Short Stories by Members of the Detection Club	Martin Edwards	Joffe Books
Ambrose Parry	The Apple Falls Not Far			Canongate
Sharp, Zoë and John Lawton	Once Upon a Time in New Jersey	CrimeFest: Leaving the Scene Celebrating 16 Years	Adrian Muller	Bedford Square Publishers
Peter Swanson	Strangers on a School Bus	Birds, Strangers and Psychos	Maxim Jakubowski	Bedford Square Publishers
Michael Wood	Waiting	Criminal Pursuits: This Is Me		Telos Publishing

The 2026 Judges

Chris Simmons (Chair)

Chris Simmons is the online editor of his brainchild, Crimesquad.com – a crime review website, running since March 2005. Chris is a past judge for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, which has highlighted the debuts of authors such as Louise Penny (John Creasey Dagger winner), S J Watson, Sarah Hilary, James Oswald and two-time Dagger winner, Wiley Cash.

Harriet Tyce

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before working as a criminal barrister for nearly a decade. Having escaped law and early motherhood, she started writing, and completed the MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has written three novels to date, the Sunday Times bestsellers Blood Orange and The Lies You Told. It Ends At Midnight was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim.

Laura Wilson

Laura Wilson’s psychological crime novels have been critically acclaimed. Stratton’s War won the CWA Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction and both The Lover – which won the Prix du Polar Europeen – and A Thousand Lies were shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. She also writes for young adults as Jamie Costello. She has taught on the Crime/Thriller MA course at London’s City University, written a series of Crime Fiction Masterclass columns for Mslexia magazine, judged both the CWA John Creasey Dagger and the Debut Dagger, programmed the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and co-organised the Killer Women Festival. She is also the Guardian’s crime and thriller fiction reviewer.