Joseph Bathanti, winner of our most recent Supernatural Fiction Award for his story “Kesh,” has had quite a distinguished writing career. He is the former North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-14) and recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor. He is the author of 20 books. His latest volume of poetry, Light at the Seam, from LSU Press, won the 2022 Roanoke Chowan Prize, awarded annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association for best book of poetry in a given year, as well as the 2023 Brockman-Campbell Award, given annually by the North Carolina Poetry Society, for the best book of poetry published by a North Carolina poet in the previous year. The Act of Contrition & Other Stories, winner of the Eastover Prize for Fiction, from Eastover Press, was published in July of 2023. His novella, The Stranger, is forthcoming in 2024 from Regal House Press. Bathanti is McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, NC, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program. Bahtanti’s flash fiction piece, “Jesus,” won the Summer 2022 Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition. His story, “The Cobbler’s Daughter,” was an honorable mention in our Fall 2023 Supernatural Fiction Award contest.

Although the Fall 2025 Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award competition is now in the record books—winner and honorable mentions selected, payed, and published . . . supernatural story and magic realism writers don’t have to wait long for another contest. November is our only month-long break of the year, after which we move right into the Winter 2026 Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition for brief tales of 1,000 words or fewer. This contest opens to submissions on December 1, closes to submissions on January 31 . . . and the winner and honorable mentions are published on February 14. You can find the guidelines right here.

The winning story in the Fall 2025 Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award contest is now available for your reading pleasure—as are two fine honorable mention pieces. Go ahead and give them a read.

But don’t despair. Our Winter 2026 Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition opens to submissions on December 1—plenty of time for competitors to write a new, 1,000-word short-short story incorporating a supernatural theme or element.

OUR SCREW TURN FLASH FICTION COMPETITION

. . . Is now closed to submissions of sudden or short-short fiction between 250 and 1,000 words. The deadline was July 15. Complete guidelines for the next flash contest are available here.  

The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award Winners

Maura Stanton of Bloomington, Indiana, won our spring 2025 short story competition with her story, “School for Robots.” Maura is our second-ever two-time winner of the contest: Her piece, “House Ghosts,” won the fall 2015 Supernatural Fiction Award.

We also had two honorable mentions in our spring competition, each of whom received a $300 cash award. You can access all three winning stories as well as all of our past winners and honorable mentions on our story page.

Our next contest, The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition for sudden stories of 1,000 words or fewer opens to submissions on June 6. You can review the guidelines here.

The Supernatural Fiction Award . . . Ten Years Ago . . .

The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award
WINNER, Summer 2015

BY RACHEL WYMAN

It was in June, 2015 when TGS published the first winner of The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award: “Guédé,” a story of love and voodoo in New York City, by Rachel Wyman, a Brooklyn dancer and artist who had never previously published a work of fiction. Wyman also painted her own illustration for the piece.

Along with all the other winners and honorable mentions over the past ten years, “Guédé” has remained on the TGS website, and is available here.

In June of this year, with the publication of the Spring TGS Fiction Award winner and two honorable mentions, we will have completed a full decade of biannually providing cash awards and publication to the finest short fiction submitted to us on a supernatural or magic realism theme. [Read more…] about OUR 10th ANNIVERSARY

The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award

As we’ve done every spring and fall since 2015, The Ghost Story is running a competition for full-length short stories on a supernatural or magic realism theme—and we are now accepting submissions.

The winner receives $1,500 plus publication, and we also publish two honorable mention pieces, the authors of which each get a $300 cash award.

If you’re thinking of entering, please read the complete guidelines. The guidelines page also includes a link to our electronic submissions system.

And, if you’d like to read some of our past winners and honorable mentions, they’re all available for your reading pleasure here.

Cheers — The Editor

The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition

. . . is now CLOSED to submissions.

We’ll be announcing and publishing our winner and honorable mentions on or before February 14. But that’s not the end of opportunities for writers to compete, because The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award, for full-length short stories, opens to submissions on February 15. The deadline is April 30, with winners announced on June 1. You can read more about it here.

Don’t forget to stop back in a couple of weeks to read our top three flash-fiction pieces!

Our Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition

Got a short-short story—under 1,000 words—on a supernatural or magic realism theme that you’re ready to start submitting to publications? Or maybe you’ve got one rattling around in your brain that you’ve been thinking about committing to paper, or to a computer screen?

Well, our Winter contest for flash fiction—AKA sudden, or brief, or short-short fiction—is now open to submissions. If you’d like to have a look at our guidelines, you can access them here.

Happy holiday season — The Editor