Do you have a knack for conjuring up sinister plots, capturing the perfect crime, or documenting deadly deeds? If so, this is your chance to showcase your talent. Glencairn Crystal, the maker of the world’s favourite whisky glass – the Glencairn Glass, and a sponsor of the McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime writing awards, is seeking crime short stories in collaboration with Bloody Scotland and Scottish Field Magazine. This years theme was “Scottish Crime,” which means that the story must be set in Scotland.

This competition is now closed, please see the winners below.

The winning story is published in the May issue of Scottish Field Magazine (on shelf in April) and the runner up story is published on Scottish Field Magazine’s website: www.scottishfield.co.uk.

Frances Crawford is a passionate advocate of lifelong learning. In 2022, she graduated at the age of 60 with an MLitt (First) in Creative Writing from Glasgow University. She has published a number of short stories with disabled protagonists and is particularly interested in characters traditionally overlooked in fiction. She lives in Glasgow with her family, and is currently working on a crime novel.

Allan Gaw is a Scot who lives and works near Glasgow.  He is a pathologist by training but now writes full-time. He writes short stories, novel length historic crime fiction and poetry. Recently, he won the UK Classical Association Creative Writing Competition, the International Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize and the International Globe Soup 7 day Writing Challenge. He has also had prose accepted for the literary journal, From Glasgow to Saturn, and for forthcoming anthologies from the Edinburgh Literary Salon and Clan Destine Press in Australia. His poetry has been published by Dreich, Soor Plooms Press and Black Bough Poetry.