It is utterly surreal, but I’m so thrilled to say that my short story, ‘A Date on Yarmouth Pier’, has won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Short Story Dagger for 2025.
The daggers are the biggest awards in British crime fiction, and I’m frankly overwhelmed that my first conventionally published short story should be recognised in this way. It means a lot to me, not just as a writer, but also as a queer person writing from a queer perspective about a disadvantaged coastal town.
The story centres on a first date which goes from weird to worse, and the judges wrote: “When Tom meets Nick in a dismal seaside town for a first date, things start awkwardly and get worse: this story is a mini-masterpiece with a killer twist that leaves the reader thinking, ‘of course!’”
Seeing that line in the ceremony booklet did an incredible thing to me. There will always be a part of me that wonders if people actually read my stuff. That’s a mix of low self-esteem and having a background in academia, where more people talk about things than read them. I will always think people saying nice things about my work are just being polite — but a one-line summary means people have actually read it. And that is always the most incredible feeling.
It’s published in Martin Edwards’ anthology Midsummer Mysteries, available from Flame Tree Press. I’m so grateful to Martin for selecting a story from me, an unknown entity, for inclusion.
The award was presented by Ayo Onotade, well-known and well-loved in the crime fiction community, who was an absolute angel in the face of my awkwardness and disbelief.
With all this news — I also have an upcoming short story publication and a play being performed, which I’ll share soon — I am starting to think I might be a writer after all.
JC Bernthal 