Winners Are Here

We’re finally happy to announce the winners and shortlisters for our first Story Lamp Reviews Short Story Competition

Image by Sarah S.

When we first announced the Story Lamp Reviews Short Story Competition, I honestly had no idea what the judging process would teach me. Over the past month, my co-editor and I have read and re-read every story several times over.

While we enjoyed many of them, there can sadly be few runner-ups and fewer winners. It was a hard decision to make, but rest assured that we took into account many things of each of the pieces.

This time around, we looked for stories that had a lot of clear imagination, but found ourselves drawn to those that packed an emotional punch despite the genre. We found that many stories attempted to be more experimental, which is never a bad thing.

We’ve come across some really amazing imagainations out there, and I’ve enjoyed discussing all of them with my co-editor, Evan.

In the end, Evan and I each selected one winning story, and one shortlisted story which we felt deserved recognition. I’ll say it again. After many conversations and more rereads than I expected, we’ve finally reached our decision.

The winners for 2026 Short Story Contest are:

Winners:

‘Return to Normal’— by — Determination, Deliberation, and Dragons (Selected by Evan)

[embed]Return to Normal Story Lamp Reviews Short Story Competitionmedium.com

Comment from Evan: There were some clear images that stayed with me in Return to Normal, which is one of the things I’m always on the lookout when reading. If you can weave your narratives with images that resonate with me, I’m going to be more invested in the story, although that isn’t a hard and fast rule. I was struck with the pacing, as the story seemed to unfold, to me, like a wave coming to shore. I also like it when an author is clear about the messages they want to convey to the reader, and this story knew what it wanted to say.

‘Scavengers’ — by — Flaminia D.

[embed]Scavengers A short storymedium.com

Comment from Sarah S: If you know me, you know that I am a sucker for a good mystery. What I admired most about Scavengers was probably how naturally this mystery seemed to unfold from the beginning. I loved how the author drip-feeds little clues around letter warnings to the teachers’ silences. A lot of the plot elements were quietly built and the reveal felt surprising but believable, which is exactly how I like them.

Shortlisted:

‘Birthday Wishes’ — by — Adabelle Xie

[embed]Birthday Wishes Try to make all the right ones | Story Lamp Reviews Short Story Competitionmedium.com

Comment: Birthday Wishes stuck out to me for its use of langauge and premise. I particularly enjoyed the conversations between Leah and Debbie, which gave the story space to explore themes of regret, forgiveness, and the life we imagine we could have lived. It was very poignant.

‘The Augmenter of Ozymandias’ — by — Ryan Ponseti

[embed]The Augmenter of Ozymandias Story Lamp Reviews: Short Story Competition 2026medium.com

Comment: Science fiction isn’t generally a genre I read all the time, but I appreciated how much thought had gone into the building of this world in The Augmenter of Ozymandias. I enjoyed following Deja on her journey.

Congrats to our two competition winners and our shortlisted writers! (Please be sure to keep an eye on your inbox over the next few days, as we’ll be sending through your digital award badges.)

Thank You to All Our Writers

We just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who submitted to the contest. Whether your story was about science fiction, horror, literary fiction, mystery or something else, I can confidently say it was a privilege to spend time reading your stories!

What’s Next:

As Story Lamp Reviews Short Story Competition has come to an end, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of writers to launch it with!

We’re already looking ahead to future competitions and would love to make them a regular part of the publication. Hopefully, we’ll have some themed competitions centering around seasons like: Halloween, Christmas, New Year, and some surprises in between.

Thanks for reading!

Warm Regards,

The Editors at Story Lamp Reviews

Tagging as many as we can!

Determination, Deliberation, and Dragons Adabelle Xie Ryan Ponseti Flaminia D. Naomi Shippen Brindha Garrison Parker Sleepymehta Writersdesk Ina Raz Zeeshan Ali Pen & Page The Half-Baked Take Sarah Tinney Merit Gogo-fyneface Liane Fazio Margaret Colgan Aadita Kshitizatmoon Vin , Between the Lines Omey Blaze Rachel Berry Homera Hassan Daniel McIntosh, PhD.