SHORTLIST and HIGHLY COMMENDED

The cream of the crop!

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash

The standard of submissions to the Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2025 was extremely high, and surpassed even our loftiest hopes for the competition.

Now we are excited and pleased beyond words to bring you the Shortlisted and Highly Commended stories.

In the context of a competition, what sets one story apart from others is sometimes indefinable, and is often more a matter of subjective opinion than objective evaluation. It might be a matter of voice, a surprising structure, an unusual choice of topic. In those very special stories we’ve encountered, we knew from the opening that we were in the hands of a skilled craftsperson whom we could trust to weave a tale around us. This is especially true of the stories listed below. They touched us deeply, and will stay with us for a long time to come.

To the writers, we want a say a huge ‘Thank you!’ for the experience.

Okay, let’s get to it!

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The SHORTLIST

These ten stories are the cream of a very rich crop, and will appear in a special edition of Frazzled Lit, to be published soon after the announcement of winners.

Also, our six finalists will be chosen from the shortlist, and will be forwarded to Nuala O’Connor, who will select our three winners.

• A Fate Like Gallus’

• Amy’s Mom

• Flesh + Bone

• Gluebag

• Limbo Nights

• Modus Transvectio

• Silfra

• Slasher Dream #2

• The Bunker

• The Canal

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HIGHLY COMMENDED

The twenty stories on this list are among the strongest we received. Writers, take a bow; you richly deserve it!

• An herbarium, to press and preserve words no longer

• Basslines of War

• CATFISH

• Dugout

• EXPERIENCE SHARING ACTIVATED

• Finding Voice

• Invisible Measures

• Lice-free

• Linger

• Menwith Hill

• Nothing Settles

• One Another's Forever

• Steaks

• Such wonders

• The Observable Universe

• This is the Thing

• Triptych

• Virtual Reality Is a lonely Place

• Young Enough

• Ziva

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Huge congratualations to the writers of the above stories, to our longlistees, and to all those who submitted to the competition.

You enriched our lives in wonderful ways, and we will be eternally grateful to you for affording us the opportunity to appreciate the fruits of your literary talents.

We will announce the six finalists on August 6th!