The Nova Short Story Competition is our annual competition for budding writers of science fiction and fantasy short stories. The annual competition is open for entry from the beginning of April until then end of September. Winning entries, finalists and selected entries are published in Probe. As a popular service to our entrants, critiques of entries may be requested. They are completely optional, and comprise an intelligently collated paragraph or two of comments made by our provisional judges. The competition is co-sponsored by Arthur Goldstuck of WorldWideWorx


NOVA 2020 HAS BEEN CANCELLED



Unfortunately, Nova 2020 has been cancelled. Lockdown has affected many things, and Nova is no exception. We only received two entries this year. We will be back next year for Nova 2021; hopefully, we will return to our days of glory. Probe will also be affected next year, because much of its content comprises entries to Nova. Our editor will be looking for alternative articles, so please inundate her with LOCs, interesting articles, and anything else that catches your fancy. See here for suggestions.

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NOVA 2021



In a nutshell:
  • Opens on 1 April 2021
  • Entry details must be submitted using the current entry form;
  • genres of science fiction or fantasy;
  • 2000-8000 words;
  • Only entries less than 5000 words are eligible for Mondi Incantati;
  • Rules will be available on our website when the competition opens

    • Please read all the rules before submitting entries.

    For more details, you are welcome to email the convenor of the Short Story Competition.


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    Previous Winners

    The winners of previous Nova Competitions can be found here. A complete list of all winners since 1971 can be downloaded as well.


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    FAQ

    The Nova Short Story Competition FAQ can be found here.
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    Did you know?

    The first short story competition was held in 1971. First prize was an awesome R15!
    The winning entry, as judged by Arthur Bleksley, was Man Proposes by WG Lipsett.


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