Winning Story
Children Always Come Home
Saher Hasnain
The story follows a woman who is (not quite) at the end of her journey through the various difficulties of running a shoe store during (not quite) the end of the world. Ghosts of family members, dying technology, and lost shoes make appearances.
FINALISTS
Takwir Al-Ghaib
by Muhammad Umair Khan
The Dogs of Justice
by Bina Shah
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Stone People
by Hajra Omar
Clarity
by Zayna Rahman
The Qawwal
by Hasnain Nawab
The Seven Degrees Celsius Mango
by Effa Abid Shah
JUDGES
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Shiv Ramdas
Shiv Ramdas is an Indian writer of speculative fiction. His work has appeared in publications such as Strange Horizons, Slate, Podcastle and others, and has been nominated for the Ignyte, Nebula, and Hugo Awards.
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Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of The Pallbearers’ Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things, The Cabin at the End of the World,
Aamer Hussain
Born in Karachi in 1955, Aamer Hussein moved to London in 1970 and until the pandemic divided the last decade between London and working in Pakistan.
- REVIEWING EDITOR Wendy N. Wagner