Next Generation Short Story Awards

The 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards is open to all authors, even first time authors, in the U.S., Canada, or internationally who have an original short story (5,000 words or less) written in English that has not been previously published at the time of entry.

All Winners and Finalists for the 2024 awards will be announced mid-May 2024. Only the Winners and Finalists will be notified by email of their placement. Please check our website at the end of May (2024) for a complete list of all Winners and Finalists for 2024! We recommend following us on our social media platforms for updates.

How To Enter the Next Generation Short Story Awards

All stories must be submitted digitally by February 27, 2025

1 Review and ensure you comply with the Rules

Before entering, make sure your story complies with the rules.

2 Select the category or categories you wish to enter

Select the category or categories you wish to enter based on which category most applies to your story. You may enter as many categories as you like.

Categories are listed here

3 Complete the online entry process

Complete the entry form online by following the guidelines below.

Note: Only one entry form is required per story regardless of the number of categories you wish to enter. However, if you wish to enter more than one story, you must complete a different entry form for each story.

ONLINE ENTRY GUIDELINES

To enter the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards (the “Short Story Awards”) complete the online entry form and pay online with a credit card through PayPal. Submitting an entry requires a ShortStoryAwards.com Account which will allow you to manage your entries and personal information.
Note: We do not accept offline entries.

There are four simple steps to complete your online entry:

1. Create/login to your Short Story Awards account

2. Fill out the Online Entry Form

3. Pay the entry fee(s) through PayPal

The 2025 entry fee is $25 per story for the first category entered and $20 for each additional category entered for the same story.

Note: If you pay by credit card, the charge on your credit card statement will show as Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (for ShortStoryAwards.com).

After you submit payment for your online entry, you will receive an email from info@shortstoryawards.com with entry details.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure you add info@shortstoryawards.com to your address book so you can receive important emails from us including an email notifying you if you win or place as a finalist in the awards program. Make sure to whitelist us so any winning email does not end up in your spam folder!

4. Upload your story

Your story must be submitted in PDF FORMAT and be no longer than 5,000 words (or 1,000 to 3,000 words for middle or high school/senior school student categories); The PDF filename must be the name of your story followed by your last name in brackets. As an example, if your last name is Jones and the name of your story is "The Wishing Tree", you must name your PDF: The Wishing Tree (Jones).

Digital Uploads

Once you have paid for your entry/entries into the Short Story Awards, you will be able to use your Account page to upload a copy of your story. All uploads must be in PDF format only; no other formats are accepted. Please ensure your submission is not password protected.

Note: You can upload your story digitally to be judged in any category we offer. You only need to upload your story once for all categories you have entered. However, if you are entering multiple stories, you need to upload each story in a separate submission. We do not accept email attachments for story submissions.

ENTER YOUR STORY FOR THE 2025 AWARDS

All stories must be received by us digitally by February 27, 2025 to be entered into the 2025 Awards Year.

How To Enter