The wait is over—our 10th annual (!) themed short story contest for Spectrum Writers London members is now open!
A big thank you to critique organiser Malcolm Barclay, our first ever two-time winner, for bestowing us with this year’s theme…
As always, the word count limit is 5000, and we encourage you to write a new story to this call by the deadline, which is on the 14th September 2025.
This year’s prize for the top-placing story in each of our voting categories is a gifted online writing class from a list of SFF authors and organisations, and the grand prize for the overall winner is a critique from Hebe Stanton, Senior Fiction Editor at Strange Horizons Magazine!
Full details of the rules, eligibility, time frame, and prizes can be found on the members-only contest page here.
Good luck with your entries, and we can’t wait to read the wonderful stories you’ll all come up with!