Josh Pachter

Josh Pachter's short crime fiction first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1968. Since then, he's published over 120 stories in magazines and books in the US and around the world. He's also edited some twenty anthologies (for publishers in the US, England, Holland, Germany, France, Finland, and Brazil) and translated both fiction and nonfiction from Dutch and Flemish into English. In 2020, he received the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement and won the SMFS Derringer for Best Flash Story — the first time anyone has taken home a Golden Derringer and a competitive Derringer in the same year. In 2023, his first novel — DUTCH THREAT — was published, and the following year it was named a finalist for Left Coast Crime's Best Debut Mystery Novel Lefty Award, Malice Domestic's Best First Novel Agatha Award, and Mystery Readers International's Best Debut Mystery Macavity Award. In 2024, his first book for younger readers — FIRST WEEK FREE AT THE ROOMY TOILET — was published to rave reviews; in 2025, it was named a finalist for the Best Childrens/YA Mystery Agatha.

In 2022, Josh retired after a fifty-year "day job" in higher education. Nowadays — when he's not writing, editing or translating — he's either teaching adult learners as a volunteer at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Midlothian (VA), kayaking, or traveling with his wife Laurie and/or daughter Becca.