. . . For short stories incorporating a supernatural theme or element. Competition was fierce, but in our (admittedly subjective) opinion these four stories rose to the top. For your reading pleasure we now list them here, with helpful links. The honorable mentions are not ranked, and are listed in no particular order.
Winner: “The Barnyard and the Graveyard” by Maureen McEly: A stressed-out woman driving past an expansive cemetery with a car full of kids and a head full of worries picks up an unusual but helpful hitchhiker.
Honorable Mention: “Night Marcher” by Michael Kaukeano Sonray-Kelly: A deadbeat dad long thought dead returns to haunt a young man living rough on the streets of a Hawaiian city.
Honorable Mention: “Ghost Story” by Isobel Oliphant: Is there sex after death? The author imagines an answer.
Honorable Mention: “Beat the Devil” by Mona Susan Power: In this humorous piece, A Native American deity must do battle with Satan after some wayward kids get naked and lure the old devil up through the broken floor of an abandoned gymnasium.
Screw Turn Winners—Followed By Our Spring Contest Opening
On Valentine’s Day—as always—we’ll be publishing the winner and honorable mentions in the Winter 2023 Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition. This time around, there will be three honorables rather than the usual two. Check back on Tuesday and you can read them all.
Then, as soon as the clock hits the witching hour on Wednesday, February 15, we’ll start accepting submissions to our full-length story competition: The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award. Deadline for the Spring contest is April 30, with an online publication date of June 1. Look here for complete guidelines and access to our electronic submissions system.
Looking for information on The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition or The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award contest? Here’s all you need to know.
And now . . . The winner of the Fall 2022 Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award: “Transcribed,” by Finnish writer Heidi Marjamäki. Click here to read “Transcribed.”
Volume II of our print anthology, “21st Century Ghost Stories,” has just been published. It contains all of our Summer 2018 to Summer 2021 winning and honorable mention stories from The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award contest and The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition—30 fine supernatural short stories in all!
