Macavity Award Win!

We’d just finished trick-or-treating and had sat down for Halloween dinner when the news from Bouchercon popped up on my phone: A Macavity Award win for “English 398: Fiction Workshop” for Best Short Story?!?! Hooray!

I’m so thrilled to be in such good company with this year’s other award winners: Lou Berney’s November Road for Best Novel, John Copenhaver’s Dodging and Burning for Best First Novel, Sujata Massey’s The Widows of Malabar Hill for the Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery, and Sarah Weinman’s The Real Lolita for Best Nonfiction. Congrats to them and to all the finalists, particularly the authors of the fine contenders in the short story category: Craig Faustus Buck, Leslie Budewitz, Barb Goffman, Barry Lancet, and Gigi Pandian.

And thanks to Donna Andrews for stepping up to accept the award and to deliver my acceptance speech, which I’m pasting below.

I’m very sorry not to be at this year’s Macavity Awards presentation in person, but as the Opening Ceremonies are going on, my wife Tara and I are out trick-or-treating with our son Dashiell—who’s dressed as Bond, James Bond, complete with a white dinner jacket and a plastic martini glass in hand (juice only, shaken, not stirred).

But no matter how much candy Dash gets tonight, I guarantee that nothing could be sweeter than learning that my story “English 398: Fiction Workshop” has won this year’s Macavity Award.

Thank you to the subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and to the members of Mystery Readers International for their support—not just for my story but also for those by Barb, Barry, Craig, Gigi, and Leslie as well, and congratulations to them again for their fine work.

Thank you also to Janet Rudolph for all that she does for the mystery community and for friendship over many years.

And thank you also to Janet Hutchings, my editor at Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, for believing in “English 398: Fiction Workshop” and for her encouragement and support of my work.

Finally: my wife Tara and I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow when we get to Dallas—so thrilled to be arriving after such a great start to Bouchercon’s 50th year.

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