- Winning Story 2026
All the Tears from the River Below
by Rida Altaf
The last born child of an isolated and endangered mountain community—separated from the world by floods—contends with the death of her mother and her aunt’s belief that they can warp space to save everyone. Read this poignant and haunting story.
Finalists
| Qitmir | Dreams of Dying and Waking Men |
|---|---|
|
by Eman Farhan |
by Shahmeer Mahesar |
Honorable Mentions
| Diesel Raven |
|---|
|
by Abdul Kabir Qureshi |
Judges for 2026
Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Road of Bones, All Hallows, The Night Birds, and The House of Last Resort. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. He has also written for film, television, video games, and animation, and he co-wrote and co-directed the Audible original series Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Golden has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award eleven times in eight different categories, and won twice. He has also won the Shirley Jackson Award and the Audie Award, and his work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award and the Eisner Award, among others. Golden lives in Massachusetts.
Robert V.S Redick
Robert V.S. Redick’s most recent epic fantasy, Sidewinders, has been called “a brilliant fever dream of a novel that is bound to impress” by Grimdark Magazine and “a breathtaking work” by two-time World Fantasy Award winner C.S.E. Cooney. Of his previous novel, Master Assassins, Patrick Rothfuss wrote, “So good I wish I could have written it, but deep down I know I couldn’t have written it so well.” Robert is the winner of the New Millennium Writings Award and a finalist for the Locus Award, the SFX Novel Award, and the The AWP/Thomas Dunne Award for Best Novel. His short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Puerto del Sol, and various anthologies, most recently Dreams For a Broken World.
Karen Joy Fowler
Karen Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book.