#1 Inaugural Edition

Reedsy Prompts has inspired and supported a global community of writers for nearly a decade. Now, we’re proud to launch a new competition: the Reedsy Literary Prize, an award created to recognize short fiction of exceptional quality.

Writers around the world have three months to compose and refine a single short story (2,000 to 5,000 words) in response to one prompt. All submissions will be assessed by the Reedsy team, with longlisted stories reviewed by our guest judge Jon Michael Darga, Literary Agent at Aevitas Creative Management and a Reedsy editor.

Whether you’re an emerging voice or an established writer, we invite you to submit your best short fiction for the chance to get your work read by a top literary agent. If you’ve been slowly shaping a story — or waiting for the right place to submit — this is the perfect opportunity to see how your storytelling stacks up against a global community of writers.

The winner and runners-up will be announced by July 31, 2026.

Special Update: The Results 🏆

After reading submissions from writers all around the world, we're thrilled to announce the winner of the inaugural Reedsy Literary Prize: Carrie Midkiff, for her story "AI."

Written in response to the prompt Write a story that includes change or transformation, "AI" is a sharp, satirical piece on artificial imitation, centered on a content moderator whose job is to assess computer-generated faces.

Our guest judge, Jon Michael Darga, chose it for its confident execution and and exploration of a timely subject matter: "By the time we reach the story’s conclusion, a fascinating mixture of horror and relief has been created: the latter, that the character’s sense of order, balance, and understanding has been restored; the former, because we, the reader, now fully understand what it’s been restored to."

We'd also like to recognize our runners-up, who'll be given a year-long Reedsy Learning membership (second place) and Reedsy Marketplace credit (third place):

🥈 "Just Keep Swimming" by Frances Gaudiano

🥉 "Her Exact Spot" by Isaac Ryals

On behalf of the Reedsy team, I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made the inaugural edition of the Reedsy Literary Prize a huge success. Your stories exceeded our expectations, and we hope you'll join us again for the next edition.