Prize for Speculative Short Fiction

What a year! With over 100 stories that showcased the incredible writing talent and imagination of Scottish writers, our jury had a hard time narrowing it down. But after some heated discussions, we are delighted to reveal our 2025 shortlist.

Our 2025 shortlist

Bibi's Sisters by Ailsa Fraser

Dark Matter by Caitriana NicNeacail

Gary's Massive Head Shouting Forever by Kieran McCaffrey

The Story Collector by R.M. McRitchie

The fall of the anti-euthanasia collective by Mark Gallacher

Judge Simon Spanton said of the longlist “It was a REALLY good list. Stories and characters negotiating different ways of being human, of being alive and of dying. Genre fiction doing its job properly.“

Join us for the announcement of the winner of the 2025 Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction at this year’s Event Horizon on Saturday 7th June from 8:30pm. Tickets are available here

A big thank you to everyone who submitted a story to this year’s competition. We were overwhelmed and delighted by the quality of stories, and please keep writing and submitting!

Our 2025 longlist

Chronicles of the Train Delay by Ian Macartney

Ideology by S.J. Ladds

Little Terror by Jon Reburn

Proceed Under Caution by Allan Tanner

Replaced by Kara Devlin

Sapience Record by Duncan Forgan

Sea Monkees by Sam Morris

The Second Amen by Nicole Love

The Weaver by Meghan Ellis

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 discover the best new stories by Scottish writers.

Our 2025 competition has no theme, so let your creative juices flow unhindered!

Remember, we are looking for a speculative story—explore a future world through the eyes of your character, and 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 Monday 13th January 2025 until 8pm GMT on Sunday 30th March 2025.

The winning writer will be awarded £150. The winning story will also be published in Shoreline of Infinity Magazine, of which the author will receive a complimentary copy.

The winning story will also be published in the SF Caledonia Paper, released at Cymera Festival. SF Caledonia is a Shoreline of Infinity project created to showcase Scottish SF writing. Find out more at SF Caledonia.

The winner and the two runners-up will each receive a complimentary weekend pass to our 2025 festival. We will host a special Event Horizon event at the 2025 festival celebrating our competition and its winners, where the winning story will be read aloud by professional actors.

Am I Scottish enough?

The Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction is open to anyone who is Scottish by birth or by inclination. In other words, you can enter if ANY 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

 

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)