# Anthony Award for Best Short Story

The Anthony Award for Best Short Story, established in 1986, is an annual award presented as part of the Anthony Awards on behalf of Mystery Writers of America.

## Recipients

Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Publication | Result |
| 1986 | Linda Barnes | “Lucky Penny” | New Black Mask #3 | Winner |
| 1986 | John Lutz | “Ride the Lightning” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1986 | Loren D. Estleman | “Eight Mile and Dequindre” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1986 | Peter Lovesey | “Vandals” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1986 | Ruth Rendell | “The Convolvulus Clock” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1987 | Sue Grafton | “The Parker Shotgun” | Mean Streets | Winner |
| 1987 | Clark Howard | “Scalplock” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1987 | Wayne D. Dundee | “Body Count” | Mean Streets | Finalist |
| 1988 | Robert Barnard | “Breakfast Television” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 1988 | Ed Gorman | “Turn Away” | Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction | Finalist |
| 1988 | Harlan Ellison | “Soft Monkey” | Mystery Scene Reader #1 | Finalist |
| 1988 | Joyce Harrington | “The Au Pair Girl” | Matter of Crime #1 | Finalist |
| 1988 | Max Allan Collins | “Scrap” | Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction | Finalist |
| 1990 | Nancy Pickard | “Afraid All the Time” | Sisters in Crime | Winner |
| 1990 | Sharyn McCrumb | “A Wee Doch and Doris” | Mistletoe Mysteries | Finalist |
| 1990 | Shelley Singer | “A Terrible Thing” | Sisters in Crime | Finalist |
| 1990 | Susan Dunlap | “No Safety” | Sisters in Crime | Finalist |
| 1991 | Susan Dunlap | “The Celestial Buffet” | Sisters in Crime 2 | Winner |
| 1991 | Marilyn Wallace | “A Tale of Two Pretties” | Sisters in Crime 3 | Finalist |
| 1991 | Sarah Shankman | “Say You're Sorry” | Sisters in Crime 3 | Finalist |
| 1991 | Sharyn McCrumb | “Remains to Be Seen” | Mummy Stories | Finalist |
| 1991 | Sharyn McCrumb | “The Luncheon” | Sisters in Crime 2 | Finalist |
| 1992 | Liza Cody | “Lucky Dip” | A Woman’s Eye | Winner |
| 1992 | Linda Grant | “Last Rites” | Sisters in Crime 4 | Finalist |
| 1992 | Margaret Maron | “Deborah's Judgment” | A Woman’s Eye | Finalist |
| 1992 | Maxine O'Callahan | “Wolf Winter” | Sisters in Crime 4 | Finalist |
| 1992 | Peter Lovesey | “The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1992 | Wendy Hornsby | “Nine Sons” | Sisters in Crime 4 | Finalist |
| 1993 | Diane Mott Davidson | “Cold Turkey” | Sisters in Crime 5 | Winner |
| 1993 | Doug Allyn | “Candles in the Rain” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1993 | Edward D. Hoch | “The Summer of our Discontent” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1993 | Gabrielle Kraft | “One Hit Wonder” | Sisters in Crime 5 | Finalist |
| 1993 | Rochelle Krich | “A Golden Opportunity” | Sisters in Crime 5 | Finalist |
| 1994 | Susan Dunlap | “Checkout” | Malice Domestic 2 | Winner |
| 1994 | K. K. Beck | “A Romance in the Rockies” | Malice Domestic 2 | Finalist |
| 1994 | M. D. Lake | “Kim's Game” | Malice Domestic 2 | Finalist |
| 1994 | Robert Lopresti | “Crow's Feat” | Constable New Crimes 2 | Finalist |
| 1995 | Sharyn McCrumb | “The Monster of Glarnis” | Royal Crimes | Winner |
| 1995 | Ed Gorman | “One of Those Days, One of Those Nights” | Crime Yellow | Finalist |
| 1995 | Ian Rankin | “A Deep Hole” | London Noir | Finalist |
| 1995 | Robert Barnard | “The Gentleman in the Lake” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1996 | Gar Anthony Haywood | “And Pray Nobody Sees You” | Spooks, Spies & Private Eyes | Winner |
| 1996 | Bill Crider | “How I Found a Cat, Lost True Love, and Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” | Cat Crimes Takes a Vacation | Finalist |
| 1996 | Elizabeth Daniels Squire | “The Dog Who Remembered too Much” | Malice Domestic 4 | Finalist |
| 1996 | Jean B. Cooper | “The Judge’s Boy” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1996 | K. K. Beck | “Rule of Law” | Malice Domestic 4 | Finalist |
| 1997 | Carolyn Wheat | “Accidents Will Happen” | Malice Domestic 5 | Winner |
| 1997 | Brendan DuBois | “The Dark Snow” | Playboy | Finalist |
| 1997 | Eve K. Sandstrom | “Bugged” | Malice Domestic 5 | Finalist |
| 1997 | Janet LaPierre | “Luminarias Make it Christmas-y” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1998 | Edward D. Hoch | “One Bag of Coconuts” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 1998 | Jan Grape | “A Front-Row Seat” | Vengeance Is Hers | Winner |
| 1998 | James DeFilippi | “A Fog of Many Colors” | New Mystery | Finalist |
| 1998 | James Dorr | “Paperboxing Art” | New Mystery | Finalist |
| 1998 | Simon Brett | “Ways to Kill a Cat” | Malice Domestic 6 | Finalist |
| 1999 | Barbara D’Amato Chittenden | “Of Course You Know that Chocolate Is a Vegetable?” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 1999 | Harlan Coben | “A Simple Philosophy” | Malice Domestic 7 | Finalist |
| 1999 | Jan Burke | “Two Bits” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 1999 | Peter Robinson | “The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage” | Malice Domestic 7 | Finalist |
| 1999 | Rick Riordan | “A Small Silver Gun” | MSCMM | Finalist |
| 2000 | Margaret Chittenden | “Noir Lite” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2000 | Barry Baldwin | “A Bit of a Treat” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2000 | Bill and Judy Crider | “At The Hop” | Till Death Do Us Part | Finalist |
| 2000 | Jeffery Deaver | “Triangle” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2000 | Laurie R. King | “Paleta Man” | Irreconcilable Differences | Finalist |
| 2001 | Edward D. Hoch | “The Problem of the Potting Shed” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2001 | Donald Olson | “Don't Go Upstaris” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2001 | Peter Robinson | “Missing in Action” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2001 | Rhys Bowen | “The Seal of the Confessional” | Unholy Orders | Finalist |
| 2001 | Rochelle Krich | “Widow's Peak” | Unholy Orders | Finalist |
| 2002 | Bill and Judy Crider | “Chocolate Moose” | Death Dines at 8:30 | Winner |
| 2002 | Margaret Maron | “Virgo in Sapphires” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2002 | Rochelle Krich | “Bitter Waters” | Criminal Kabbalah | Finalist |
| 2002 | S. J. Rozan | “Double-Crossing Delancy” | Mystery Street | Finalist |
| 2002 | Ted Hertel, Jr. | “My Bonnie Lies...” | Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers | Finalist |
| 2003 | Marcia Talley | “Too Many Cooks” | Much Ado About Murder | Winner |
| 2003 | Bob Truluck | “A Man Called Ready” | Measures of Poison | Finalist |
| 2003 | Clark Howard | “To Live and Die in Midland, Texas” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2003 | Lauren Haney | “Murder In The Land Of Wawat” | The Mammoth Book Of Egyptian Whodunnits | Finalist |
| 2003 | Toni Kelner | “Bible Belt” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2004 | Rhys Bowen | “Doppelganger” | Blood On Their Hands | Winner |
| 2004 | Eddie Muller | “Wanda Wilcox Is Trapped” | Plots With Guns | Finalist |
| 2004 | Elaine Viets | “Red Meat” | Blood On Their Hands | Finalist |
| 2004 | Jack Bludis | “Munchies” | Hardbroiled | Finalist |
| 2004 | Sandy Balzo | “The Grass Is Always Greener” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2005 | Elaine Viets | “Wedding Knife” | Chesapeake Crimes | Winner |
| 2005 | Arthur Nersesian | “Hunter Trapper” | Brooklyn Noir | Finalist |
| 2005 | Rhys Bowen | “Voodoo” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2005 | Ted Hertel, Jr. | “It's Crackers to Slip a Rozzer the Dropsey in Snide” | Small Crimes | Finalist |
| 2005 | Terence Faherty | “The Widow of Slane” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2006 | Barbara Seranella | “Misdirection” | Greatest Hits | Winner |
| 2006 | Elaine Viets | “Killer Blonde” | Drop-Dead Blonde | Finalist |
| 2006 | Libby Fischer Hellmann | “House Rules” | Murder in Vegas | Finalist |
| 2006 | Marcia Talley | “Driven To Distraction” | Chesapeake Crimes I | Finalist |
| 2006 | Nancy Pickard | “There Is No Crime On Easter Island” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2007 | Simon Wood | “My Father's Secret” | Crimespree Magazine | Winner |
| 2007 | Bill Crider | “Cranked” | Damn Near Dead | Finalist |
| 2007 | Dana Cameron | “The Lords of Misrule” | Sugarplums and Scandal | Finalist |
| 2007 | Elaine Viets | “After the Fall” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2007 | Megan Abbott | “Policy” | Damn Near Dead | Finalist |
| 2007 | Toni Kelner | “Sleeping with the Plush” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2008 | Laura Lippman | “Hardly Knew Her” | Dead Man's Hand | Winner |
| 2008 | Daniel Woodrell | “Uncle” | A Hell of a Woman | Finalist |
| 2008 | Rhys Bowen | “Please Watch Your Step” | The Strand Magazine | Finalist |
| 2008 | Steve Hockensmith | “Dear Dr. Watson” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2008 | Toni L. P. Kelner | “How Stella Got her Grave Back” | Many Bloody Returns | Finalist |
| 2009 | Sean Chercover | “A Sleep Not Unlike Death” | Hardcore Hardboiled | Winner |
| 2009 | Dana Cameron | “The Night Things Changed” | Wolfsbane & Mistletoe | Finalist |
| 2009 | Jane K. Cleland | “Killing Time” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2009 | Kristine Kathryn Rusch | “The Secret Lives of Cats” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2009 | Laura Lippman | “Scratch a Woman” | Hardly Knew Her | Finalist |
| 2009 | Toni L. P. Kelner | “Skull and Cross Examination” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2010 | Hank Phillippi Ryan | “On the House” | Quarry: Crime Stories by New England Writers | Winner |
| 2010 | Ace Atkins | “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” | Crossroad Blues | Finalist |
| 2010 | Dana Cameron | “Femme Sole” | Boston Noir | Finalist |
| 2010 | Dennis Lehane | “Animal Rescue” | Boston Noir | Finalist |
| 2010 | Luis Alberto Urrea | “Amapola” | Phoenix Noir | Finalist |
| 2011 | Dana Cameron | “Swing Shift” | by Moonlight | Winner |
| 2011 | Chris Holm | “The Hitter” | Needle | Finalist |
| 2011 | Doug Allyn | “Scent of Lilacs” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2011 | Mary Jane Maffini | “So Much in Common” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2011 | Patricia Morin | “Homeless” | Mystery Montage | Finalist |
| 2011 | Simon Wood | “The Frame Maker” | The Back Alley | Finalist |
| 2012 | Dana Cameron | “Disarming” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2012 | Barb Goffman | “Truth and Consequences” | Mystery Times Ten | Finalist |
| 2012 | Daryl Wood Gerber | “Palace by the Lake” | Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology | Finalist |
| 2012 | Neil Gaiman | “The Case of Death and Honey” | A Study in Sherlock | Finalist |
| 2012 | Roberta Isleib | “The Itinerary” | MWA Presents The Rich and The Dead | Finalist |
| 2012 | Twist Phelan | “Happine$$” | MWA Presents The Rich and The Dead | Finalist |
| 2013 | Dana Cameron | “Mischief in Mesopotamia” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2013 | Barb Goffman | “The Lord is My Shamus” | Crimes: This Job is Murder | Finalist |
| 2013 | Karin Slaughter | “The Unremarkable Heart” | MWA Presents: Vengeance | Finalist |
| 2013 | Shelia Connolly | “Kept in the Dark” | Best New England Crime Stories: Blood Moon | Finalist |
| 2013 | Todd Robinson | “Peaches” | Grift | Finalist |
| 2014 | John Connolly | “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository” | Blibiomysteries, The Mysterious Bookshop | Winner |
| 2014 | Art Taylor | “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2014 | Craig Faustus Buck | “Dead End” | Untreed Reads | Finalist |
| 2014 | Denise Dietz | “Annie and the Grateful Dead” | The Sound and the Furry | Finalist |
| 2014 | Travis Richardson | “Incident on the 405” | Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble | Finalist |
| 2015 | Art Taylor | “The Odds Are Against Us” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2015 | Barb Goffman | “The Shadow Knows” | Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays | Finalist |
| 2015 | Craig Faustus Buck | “Honeymoon Sweet” | Murder at the Beach: The Bouchercon Anthology 2014 | Finalist |
| 2015 | John Shepphird | “Of Dogs & Deceit” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2015 | Paul D. Marks | “Howling at the Moon” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2016 | Megan Abbott | “The Little Men” | A Bibliomystery by MysteriousPress.com | Winner |
| 2016 | Johnny Shaw | “Feliz Navidead” | Thuglit Presents: Cruel Yule: Holiday Tales of Crime for People on the Naughty List | Finalist |
| 2016 | Erin Mitchell | “Old Hands” | Dark City Lights | Finalist |
| 2016 | Hilary Davidson | “The Siege” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2016 | Holly West | “Don't Fear the Ripper” | Protectors 2: Heroes | Finalist |
| 2016 | Travis Richardson | “Quack and Dwight” | Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds | Finalist |
| 2017 | Megan Abbott | “Oxford Girl” | Mississippi Noir | Winner |
| 2017 | Art Taylor | “Parallel Play” | Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning | Finalist |
| 2017 | Holly West | “Queen of the Dogs” | 44 Caliber Funk: Tales of Crime, Soul and Payback | Finalist |
| 2017 | Johnny Shaw | “Gary's Got A Boner” | Waiting To Be Forgotten: Stories of Crime and Heartbreak, Inspired by the Replacements | Finalist |
| 2017 | Lawrence Block | “Autumn at the Automat” | In Sunlight or Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper | Finalist |
| 2018 | Hilary Davidson | “My Side of the Matter” | Killing Malmon | Winner |
| 2018 | Art Taylor | “A Necessary Ingredient” | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI | Finalist |
| 2018 | Barb Goffman | “Whose Wine Is It Anyway” | 50 Shades of Cabernet | Finalist |
| 2018 | Debra Goldstein | “The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2018 | Jen Conley | “God's Gonna Cut You Down” | Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash | Finalist |
| 2018 | Susanna Calkins | “The Trial of Madame Pelletier” | Charlaine Harris Presents Malice Domestic 12: Mystery Most Historical | Finalist |
| 2019 | S. A. Cosby | “The Grass Beneath My Feet” | Tough Magazine | Winner |
| 2019 | Art Taylor | “English 398: Fiction Workshop” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2019 | Barb Goffman | “Bug Appétit” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2019 | Greg Herren | “Cold Beer No Flies” | Florida Happens | Finalist |
| 2019 | Holly West | “The Best Laid Plans” | Florida Happens | Finalist |
| 2020 | Alex Segura | “The Red Zone” | Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas!: Stories to Benefit the People of Puerto Rico | Winner |
| 2020 | Art Taylor | “Better Days” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2020 | Art Taylor | “Hard Return” | Crime Travel | Finalist |
| 2020 | Hector Acosta | “Turistas” | Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas!: Stories to Benefit the People of Puerto Rico | Finalist |
| 2020 | Hilary Davidson | “Unforgiven” | Murder-a-Go-Go's: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go's | Finalist |
| 2021 | Alex Segura | “90 Miles” | Both Sides: Stories from the Border | Winner |
| 2021 | Art Taylor | “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” | Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2021 | Barb Goffman | “Dear Emily Etiquette” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2021 | Gabriel Valjan | “Elysian Fields” | California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology | Finalist |
| 2021 | James W. Ziskin | “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement” | In League with Sherlock Holmes | Finalist |
| 2022 | S. A. Cosby | “Not My Cross to Bear” | Down & Out Books | Winner |
| 2022 | E. A. Aymar | “The Search for Eric Garcia” | | Finalist |
| 2022 | Gabriel Valjan | “Burnt Ends” | | Finalist |
| 2022 | Gigi Pandian | “The Locked Room Library” | Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine | Finalist |
| 2022 | Richie Narvaez | “Doc's at Midnight” | | Finalist |
| 2022 | Tracy Clark | “Lucky Thirteen” | Midnight Hour | Finalist |
| 2022 | V. M. Burns | “The Vermeer Conspiracy” | Midnight Hour | Finalist |
| 2023 | Barb Goffman | “Beauty and the Beyotch” | Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine | Winner |
| 2023 | Bruce Robert Coffin | “The Impediment” | Deadly Nightshade: Best New England Crime Stories 2022 | Finalist |
| 2023 | Curtis Ippolito | “The Estate Sale” | Vautrin Magazine | Finalist |
| 2023 | E. A. Aymar | “Still Crazy After All These Years” | Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon | Finalist |
| 2023 | Gabriel Valjan | “C.O.D.” | Low Down Dirty Vote Volume 3: The Color of My Vote | Finalist |