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2025 HG Wells Short Story Award Ceremony
The annual HG Wells Fiction Short Story Competition offers a £500 Senior and £1,000 Junior prize and free publication of all shortlisted entries in a quality, professionally published paperback anthology.
Our Under 22 Competition has 7 shortlisted authors from across the world from 670 entries. 3 are based in the UK, and we also have authors from India, Morocco and the USA.
The Under 22 Shortlist
- Moulika Nandy (IND) The Divorce Bench
- Gloria Mesa (US) Devil On My Heels
- Jane Belle (MA) The Syrup Boy of Whickering Moor
- Sarah-Kate Simons (NZ) Confessional
- Kate Smith (GB) Mrs Summers
- Romessa Hussain (GB) The Conductor
- Anushka Pahariya (GB) Programmed
Our Over 21 Competition has 12 shortlisted authors from across the world from 191 entries. 6 are based in the UK, 3 the USA, and also from Japan, South Korea and Malta.
The Over 21 Shortlist
- Matthew Dickens (GB) Space of Communion
- Simon Rowe (JP) Boy Bites Shark
- James Skivington (GB) J'Accuse
- Edward Fry (GB) Cardinal
- Isabelle Hunt (GB) The Commute
- Zack Harmes (US) Hell's Greatest Dad
- Catherine Strong (GB) Katya
- Rachel Desiree Felix (KR) Neither Sea Nor Shore
- Timothy Collyer (GB) A Head for Compromise
- Lisa Ferguson (US) Captain Middle Ground
- Ken Pisani (US) The Boy Who Wasn't Dead
- L M Bestie (MT) Halfway Through The In-Between
The Middle Ground
The Middle Ground contains nineteen of the best short stories on the theme of The Middle Ground selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2025 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition.
Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works in the junior category by Jane Belle, Romessa Hussain, Gloria Mesa, Moulika Nandy, Anushka Pahariya, Sarah-Kate Simons and Kate Smith.
In the senior category authors include L. M. Bestie, Timothy Collyer, Matthew Dickens, Rachel Desiree Felix, Lisa Ferguson, Edward Fry, Zack Harmes, Isabelle Hunt, Ken Pisani, Simon Rowe, James Skivington and Catherine Strong.
Buy The Middle Ground from Amazon (recommended for all non-UK postage).
Buy The Middle Ground as a Kindle download from Amazon.
2025
247 pages. ISBN 978-1-7384026-9-4
£8.55