A Brief Respite

We continue working hard on our first supernatural-story anthology, 21st Century Ghost Stories—Volume I, which is due out in August. The paperbound book (Wyrd Harvest Press; Durham, U.K.) will include all winning and honorable mention stories published to date in The Supernatural Fiction Award and The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition.

Our illustrator, Andy Paciorek, has created images for about one third of the 29 stories so far—and this one is one of our favorites. It illustrates “A Brief Respite,” written by English writer C.L. Dalkin, which was our 2016 Screw Turn winner. Enjoy.

Are You Ready For Volume One?

Much of the recent attention from readers and contest participants has been on Volume 2 of 21st Century Ghost Stories—and for good reason. The Winner and two Honorable Mentions in the current Supernatural Fiction Award competition will be published in this second volume, which is scheduled for publication by Wyrd Harvest Press in 2021. In fact, between now and October 31, 2021, all winners and honorable mentions in both Ghost Story contests—the biannual Fiction Award and our annual Flash Fiction Competition—will be slated for publication in Volume 2.

However, we’re excited to remind you that Volume One will be out in just a few months, and it will contain all the stories that were winners, or won honorable mentions, from the summer of 2015 through the winter of 2018. In all, that’s 29 full-length short stories and flash fiction pieces for your reading enjoyment.

Not only are we currently editing and designing Volume One, but British illustrator Andy Paciorek has been busy creating a visual interpretation of each piece. The illustration above is a good example of what you’ll see throughout our upcoming anthology. We can’t wait until a copy is in our hands. . . .

Demonic Tale From America’s Coal Country Takes First Honors In The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition

SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE STORIES . . . or VISIT THE STORY PAGE

Kurt Newton, of Woodstock Valley, Connecticut, is the winner of the 2018 Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition and the contest’s $300 cash prize for his sudden fiction piece, “The Coal Mape.”

Honorable Mention and a $100 cash award went to Robert Perchan, an American living in Pusan, South Korea, for his piece, “Compression: A Very Short Story.”

Second Honorable Mention, with a $50 prize, was taken by Carie Juettner, of Austin, Texas, for “Hindsight.”

All three 2018 Screw Turn stories will be included in the paperbound anthology, 21st Century Ghost Stories—Volume I, scheduled for publication in August by Wyrd Harvest Press (Durham, U.K.).

The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition is for supernatural stories of 1,000 or fewer words. Our next fiction contest is The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award, for which we begin accepting submissions on February 15, 2018. Prizes are $1,000, $250, and $100 for full-length short stories of between 1.500 and 10,000 words. Good luck!

Our Paperbound Anthology Is Now Available

The Ghost Story is proud to announce the publication of an illustrated paperbound anthology containing 29 stories that have won or received honorable mentions in either The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award or The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition. The book anthologizes every winning and honorable mention story recognized with one of our awards and published on The Ghost Story website between 2015 and early 2018.

You can order a copy now!

The anthology, entitled 21st Century Ghost Stories, is a project of TGS and Wyrd Harvest Press, of Durham, U.K. Volume II of 21st Century Ghost Stories—Volume II, which will include winners and honorable mentions in our current Supernatural Fiction Award competition, is scheduled for publication in 2021!

All proceeds from the sale of 21st Century Ghost Stories will be donated to projects of Britain’s Wildlife Trusts.

The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition

It’s now time for another Ghost Story Awards contest. The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition is now open for submissions. Short-short stories of between 250 and 1,000 words will be eligible for cash prizes of $300, $100, and $50, as well as Valentine’s Day publication on The Ghost Story Website.

You might remember that last year’s winner was Mindy McGinnis, who also won a 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Award for her novel, A Madness So Discreet. You can read Mindy’s story, “Solitude,” as well as the two stories that won honorable mentions in our flash-fiction contest, right here.

And you can click right here for guidelines to our 2018 contest. Good luck!

Illustration by Andy Paciorek

Our Fall Short Story Competition

It’s Halloween, which means that it’s time to announce (and publish) the Winner and two Honorable Mentions in the fall 2017 Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award contest. The winner received a $1,000 cash award, and the Honorable Mention and Second Honorable Mention received $250 and $100 respectively. All three were custom illustrated by British artist Andy Paciorek, and all are now available for your reading pleasure.

We will begin accepting submissions to our spring 2018 competition in mid February. But don’t forget that The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition—for short-short stories of under a thousand words—begins in mid December. We’ll post an announcement on our home page in a few weeks. Meanwhile, click here for complete guidelines.

The winners of the fall, 2017 Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award are on their way. As aways, we’ll be revealing them, and publishing them, right here on Halloween, complete with custom artwork by British illustrator Andy Paciorek.

This time around, we received a record number of submissions—almost 200 in all. If you entered, regardless of whether you won, or didn’t win, thank you for your submission, and you’ll be hearing from us soon.