We are pleased to be able to announce the shortlist for this year’s competition.

The stories that have made it through to the final selection are:

Don – Steve Dubois
May the Pain Guide You Home – Daniel Roy
The Morrigan – Stewart Horn
Skin and Bone – Beth Plutchak
The Cut – Elsie WK Donald
The Dying Glass – Cameron Johnston

The winner will be announced next week.

Apologies to all this year’s competition entrants for the delays in getting to this stage. Stories not listed here should be considered released for consideration in other markets.

This year’s judging panel are:

Lorna Gibb
Lorna is a novelist, short story and non fiction writer. She has published two biographies, Lady Hester (Faber 2005), the Sperber shortlisted West’s World (Pan Mac 2012) and the critically acclaimed novel A Ghost’s Story (Granta 2015), as well as short fiction for literary magazines and Radio broadcast and the award winning memoir, ‘The Two Gardens’. She is currently writing a book on Childlessness, commissioned by Granta. Lorna lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and three rescue cats, is represented by Peter Straus at RCW Lit Agency and lectures part time in creative writing at Middlesex University.

David Gullen
David is a white African writer whose short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. His work has won the British Fantasy Society short story competition and his collection, Open Waters, is published by Exaggerated Press. In 2016 he was also a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His SF novel, Shopocalypse, is due to be re-issued by NewCon Press this summer. David lives in South London with the fantasy writer Gaie Sebold behind a small forest of tree ferns.

Konrad Waleski
Editor, writer, anthologist, literary critic and translator, Konrad is a prominent figure in the Polish Science Fiction and Fantasy scene. Hie is co-founder of, and editor for, the Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy in Poland. He has translated works such as Synners by Pat Cadigan and Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link and his anthologies include three volumes of Kroki w nieznane (Steps into the Unknown) and Wielkie dzieło czasu (Great Work of Time). He currently lives in London.