The Glencairn Glass launches its first crime short story competition

For the past two years, the world’s favourite whisky glass – The Glencairn Glass – has featured as headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut Crime-writing prizes, celebrating the finest in Scottish crime-writing talent.

This week The Glencairn Glass is building on this creative collaboration by launching its own crime short-story competition, in partnership with Scottish Field magazine, a sister title of The Oban Times.

The Glencairn Glass is looking to celebrate up-and-coming literary talent through this exclusive competition from October to December.

The competition opened for entries on Wednesday, October 20, and runs until December 31, inviting all budding crime writers to build their stories around the theme: ‘A Crystal-Clear Crime’ in no more than 2,000 words.

The judging panel for the inaugural competition will comprise Deborah Masson – 2020 winner of the Bloody Scotland Debut Crime Novel of the Year with her book, Hold Your Tongue; Peter Ranscombe, Scottish Field’s drinks columnist and author of the historical thriller, Hare; as well as Glencairn’s marketing director Gordon Brown, who has written eight crime novels with his latest, Thirty-One Bones, written under the pseudonym Morgan Cry. Gordon is also one of the founding directors of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival.

Mr Brown commented: 'We’re very excited to be launching the Glencairn Glass crime short story competition, supported by the team at the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, along with the Culture and Business Fund Scotland, working with Scottish Field. We are delighted to invite both experienced and novice authors, alike, to take a stab at entering (excuse the pun!) and wish all entrants the best of luck.'

Three prizes will be available for the winning trio of authors – first prize, £1,000, with two runners-up each receiving £250. All three winners will also receive a set of six bespoke engraved Glencairn Glasses to enjoy their favourite dram with. The overall winning entry will be published by Scottish Field in spring 2022 as well as on The Glencairn Glass website.

All short story entries must be uploaded at www.whiskyglass.com/ crime-short-story-competition by midnight on Friday December 31, 2021. Details can also be found at www. scottishfield.co.uk. Winners will be announced in March.