PRIZE JUDGE

HD Gwyn is a writer and editor based in the United Kingdom. 

He’s won a number of awards, including the inaugural Booby Prize in 2025.

He uses his stories to explore darker themes, but always through a veil of fantasy or science fiction. Sirin Song (which won him the Booby Prize) is available to read right here. 

Richard O’Neill MBE called Sirin Song “a masterclass in quiet terror and aching beauty.” 

Website: www.hdgwyn.com

Kirsty is a former English teacher who has stepped out the classroom and picked up the pen. She studied English as part of her degree at Cambridge University and is a lover of classic literature as well as all things dystopian.

She is currently based in Birmingham, UK where she divides her time between the day job, writing and looking after her literary inspired dogs, Dickens and Hardy. 

Kirsty won the Elegant Literature prize in March 2025 and was also runner up in the Globe Soup micro competition in April. Her short fiction also appears, or is due to be published, in Fairfield Scribes, Writer's Resist, 101 words, Micromance, Lowlife Lit, Curated Micro Fiction, NUNUM, Friday Flash Fiction and 72 Hours of Insanity, vol. 13.

You can find out more about Kirsty at www.kirstynottage.com

Moira Richardson is a novelist and short story writer living in Southwestern Pennsylvania, USA with her partner and their three grumpy cats. She worked as a freelance writer in Providence, Rhode Island for magazines such as Providence Monthly, the Newport Mercury, Campus Connection, among others, and taught the award-winning “Bling Bling” after-school jewelry arts program through the Providence After School Alliance. She curated the annual Art of Love art exhibit in Greensburg, PA as well as several solo art shows during her time as a resident artist in the Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s Incubator for the Arts program.

Moira has a BA in Creative Writing from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA and is ABD in the Writing Popular Fiction Master’s Program, also from Seton Hill. Her short fiction has been published, or is forthcoming by, Flash Phantoms, Paper Butterfly, The Morgue, Sci-Fi Shorts, Curated Micro Fiction, 101 words, Friday Flash Fiction, Wolfsinger Publications, Hireath Publishing, Archer Press and Crooked House Press. She also judges for NYC Midnight. 

You can find out more at www.ohmoira.com and @moirariom.bsky.social

Alethea is a writer in stay-at-home mom’s clothing. Her first drafts are as messy as her floors, but she can cut through clutter and get to the point. Her writing was forged in the depths of role play forum boards and fanfiction, tempered alongside her childhood friend and often co-writer, and sharpened by her writing group. 

When she isn’t caring for her dog, cat or two biological creations, she works on her speculative ones, or backseat games with her husband.

Alethea’s work has been featured on Curated Micro Fiction, and will be featured in an upcoming anthology: Reincurate. 

You can find her on Bluesky @aletheapaul.bsky.social

Exeter Stevens resides in Central Wisconsin where he lives with his wife and rescue dog Brownie. When not complaining about the long winters and short summers, he can be found in his office, drinking coffee and working on his first novel. 

He has received top honors in several contests including Furious Fiction and Writing Battle. 

His stories are published or forthcoming in Stygian Lepus. and Kinsman Quarterly's Iridescence 2026 Anthology

Annie is a speculative fiction author who enjoys blending the line between science fiction and fantasy. She’s always lived in a fantasy world of her own making, and it was a natural transition to putting those worlds onto paper. Her pieces have been featured in Curated Micro Fiction and Writer’s Games 2024 Anthology and will appear in the upcoming 2025 Anthology as well. Her story, “The Shape of Time,” was shortlisted for the Hammond House 2024 International Literary Prize and included in their short story anthology. 

With a degree in Applied Linguistics, she’s been an editor since 2021 and a professional beta reader since June 2024. She's still working away on her novel manuscripts, and looks forward to the day one of them is ready for publication.

You can find Annie…somewhere out there. She’s filled with wanderlust and her feet rarely seem to stop moving. When she stays in one place long enough though, you might catch her laughing with friends, drinking coffee, reading a book, listening to bluegrass music, cross-stitching, playing tabletop board games, or cuddling a cat. Any cat will do, but her favorites are her two purrbabies, Nickel and Penny.

Margaret has worked in nature conservation, mainly in the uplands and on coastal sites, for nearly 30 years. She is also a partner in a small, family-run market gardening business.

An avid reader, she loves the short story genre, not least because a really great short story condenses so much detail, pace and suspense into so few words!

After a long break from all things literature-related (She realised at 6th Form it was possible to get paid to wander the moors listening to lapwings without the added drama of balancing effete husband and menacing step-brother before an untimely demise!) she started to write and has set herself the challenge of writing a novel, while sharpening her skills with flash fiction competitions.

Michelle is an Author, Illustrator, Publisher, Storyteller and the Co-founder of Trails of Tales Community Publishing

She is also a creative facilitator building on Collaboration, Community & Connection. A huge Advocate for Makaton, World Nursery Rhyme Week & World Fun Fair Month.

An Assessor, Teacher & Nursery Nurse with a passion for Early Years gaining a First in BEd(Hons) QTS, a Distinction with NNEB & awarded the Mary Philips Award,

She was nominated for Cumbria Woman of the Year for work in representing the Showman community with the groundbreaking book The Show Must Go On published by Pearson.

NNEB, ADCE, BA QTS, D32/33

Kate is a published author and prize-winning short-story writer, too! She loves discussing all aspects of writing (& reading) and believes in collaboration and building each other up... trying to make our (creative) corner of the world a little better.  

"I’ve loved anything involving creativity since I was able to hold a pen...." 

If that wasn't enough! She is also the founder of Big Thinking Publishing.

www.bigthinkingpublishing.com

Katie is a microfiction enthusiast from Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She has entered more than twenty writing competitions since she started in earnest in 2024, with a particular interest in peer judged contests that include providing and receiving beta feedback. 

Her first published piece was a poem written when she was seven, but since then her work has also been published on Black Hare Press, Sci-Fi Shorts, and Curated Microfiction, among others. 

Though her degree was in Civil Engineering, writing has become a real passion and source of joy.