Congratulations to Moira McPartlin

Congratulations also to our two runners-up. We can’t wait tor read more from you!

Eurybia by Anne-Marie Saich

Greener by Jane Coneybeer

The winning story will be performed at the Shoreline of Infinity Event Horizon on Saturday 3rd June, and published in the Cymera edition of .

Get your ticket now!

Congratulations also to our Longlist

And God said "Let there be tuna sandwiches" by Nina Tolstoy

Before The Music Ends by Peter Stewart

Dolores by Fiona McDonald

Dreamers by Sadie Maskery

Ensnarement by Josh Holton

Expiration Day by Stacie Cocker

Insurance, Baby by Lynda Clark

Mountain by Mark Gallacher

Oranges by Cal Bannerman

Povcast by Leo Xavier McNeill Robertson

Teens on the Moon by Simon Ewing

The Pattern by Frank Hull

Trip Trap by Annemarie Allan

We can’t wait to read more of your work!

Prize for Speculative Short Fiction

Cymera, Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing and Shoreline of Infinity, Scotland’s award-winning science fiction magazine are teaming up again to host our short story competition in our quest to discover the best new stories by Scottish writers.

Our 2023 competition has no theme, so let your creative juices flow unhindered!

Remember, we are looking for a speculative story. Explore this future world through the eyes of your character, tell us their story.

Speculative (ADJECTIVE)

Engaged in, expressing, or based on conjecture rather than knowledge.

The Awards

The Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction is open to any writer living in Scotland or Scottish by birth or inclination, aged at least 14 years.

Submissions are open from 1st January 2023 until 6pm GMT on Sunday 26th March 2023.

The winning writer will be awarded £150.

The stories that are selected for the shortlist will be published on the CYMERA website after the festival. The winner will be published in the Shoreline of Infinity Magazine (Cymera Special), and the author will receive a complimentary copy. They will also receive a complimentary weekend pass to our 2023 festival.

The two runner-ups will receive a weekend pass to our 2023 festival.

We will also celebrate our competition and its winners in a special event, where the winning story will be read out by professional actors.

Am I Scottish enough?

The Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction is open to anyone who is Scottish by birth or inclination. In more details, you can enter if ONE of the following criteria applies to you.

  1. You were born in Scotland

  2. You currently live in Scotland.

  3. One or both or your parents were born in Scotland

  4. One or both of your grandparents were born in Scotland

  5. You are married to a person who was born in Scotland

  6. You were resident in Scotland for at least six months at some point prior to entering our competition.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please just get in touch on info@cymerafestival.co.uk

In 2022, due to a smaller than expected number of entrants, we decided to roll over the prize for Speculative Short Fiction to 2023.

Those who entered in 2022 remain eligible and have had their stories carried over. Should you publish your story before the entry deadline of 26 March 2023, please let us know. (And congratulations!)

 

Need some inspiration? Check out our #Cymera21 event.

Watch our event where our judges Noel Chidwick, Cat Hellisen and Oliver K. Langmead discuss the competition, the shortlist and reveal the winner. Includes a reading from the winning story The Microwave Library by David Tam McDonald, read by Debbie Cannon.

(Contains some tips for writing a good short story)