THE MIKE RESNICK MEMORIAL AWARD
Best Science Fiction Short Story by a New Author
SUBMISSIONS ARE CURRENTLY OPEN AND WILL
CLOSE APRIL 15, 2026
This is an annual award sponsored by Arc Manor Publishers and Dragon Con that celebrates new authors. As well as publishing hundreds of books as author and editor, Mike Resnick was known for his "Writer Children"—paying it forward by helping new writers start their careers. This award was created to honor his memory and continue on his legacy by spotlighting the wonderful new voices in the writing world.
For more information on eligibility and how to submit, Submissions Guidelines can be found on this page underneath the finalist announcement for the award!
WINNER FOR THE 2025 AWARD
WINNER: “Elsewhere” by Anaïs Godard
SECOND PLACE: “Tales From the Sub-Ocean: Or, Video Game as Metaphor for Mental Illness” by Ian P. Johnson
THIRD PLACE: “Child at the End of the World” by Tara McKee
“A Pixel Story” by Jason Boyd
“Sunset Bridge” by Diane Schwebs
“Kill the Art Monster Before It Kills You” by C. E. Singer
Due to a tie somewhere in the mix, we have six finalists this year, instead of five! Congratulations to our finalists and thank you to all the talented authors who submitted entries for award consideration! Mike Resnick would have so loved to have been here to witness this achievement!
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Short Story (definition): A story up to 5,000 words, as defined by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
New Author (definition): An author who has not had any fiction work published (including short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels in paper, digital or audio form) that has been paid a per-word rate of 6 cents a word or more or received a payment for any single work of fiction totaling more than $50.
If the author has self-published their work then their total earnings from any single piece of fiction may not exceed $50 from all published venues.
Eligibility: Entries should be a new science fiction short story written a new author who affirms their story was not in any way plagiarized off of any other work, nor written (in part or whole) with the assistance of AI apps or programs. The story must not have previously been released to the public via any means, including online, digital, or paper publications, or privately through such avenues as newsletters, Patreon and the like. This award is exclusively for science fiction stories, not any other form of speculative genres (including fantasy and horror) and Arc Manor (the publisher of Galaxy’s Edge anthologies) will be the final decider of this criteria in case of any disputes.
Submissions are open to everyone. They do not need to be current members of Dragon Con.
Submission Fee: None.
Submission Process:
1. All submissions must be made electronically as an MS Word document or an RTF (Rich Text Format) document.
2. The manuscript should be formatted with size 12 text, black Times New Roman font, lines double spaced. Pages need to be numbered and each page should also have the story title (this information can be included as a header or a footer). And the first page of the submitted story must contain ONLY the following information.
a) The title of the story.
b) The name of the author.
c) The approximate word count of the story.
d) Contact information for the author. Ideally this should include an email address, a phone number and a physical address.
e) A short statement that the author has read the eligibility requirements for the award and is in compliance with the requirements.
Please do NOT include your name or contact information on any other page, other than the first page described above (this includes putting it in as a header or a footer). The judging process requires the judges to review the story anonymously and anything that identifies the author other than on the first page will make this difficult. The first page with identifying information will be stripped from the MS and replaced with an identifying code before it is given to the final judges.
3. Submissions should be made directly through this Moksha portal. No exceptions.
4. Only one submission per entrant is allowed for the current submission year.
5. The winner of the Resnick Award in any previous year is not eligible to enter the competition again. (Second Place and Third Place winners can submit in future years.)
6. You may submit a new story to the current year's award even if you submitted in previous years. However, you may not resubmit the same story as you submitted in any previous year; it needs to be a new story.
Submission Dates: Stories may be submitted between January 15 and April 15 for consideration for the next Mike Resnick Memorial Award.
Judging Process: All submissions will be considered by a pool of readers organized by Arc Manor. Those determined to be the best stories will be forwarded (with all identifying information about the author deleted) to the panel of final judges who will choose the top five entries and decide upon the winner. All decisions by Arc Manor and its judges are final and binding. Arc Manor will not entertain any discussion about the merits, techniques, judging criteria or any other aspect of the competition.
Finalist Judging Panel: Judges for previous years of the Award include Nancy Kress, Lois McMaster Bujold, Lezli Robyn, Sheree Renée Thomas, Jody Lynn Nye and William B. Fawcett.
Finalist Announcement: The five finalists for the Award will be announced on the July 1st!
Award Ceremony: Awards will be handed out during the Dragon Awards ceremony during Dragon Con, which will be held in Atlanta from August 29 to September 2 in 2024. (Specific date of the Award Ceremony night updated once known.)
Winner Prize: The winner will get a trophy and a cash award of $250.00.
Second Place and Third Place prizes: The second place winner will be given a prize of $100 and the third place winner a prize of $50.
Inquires: Inquiries regarding the award may be sent to admin@arcmanor.com. Please put Resnick Award Inquiry in the subject line.
ABOUT MIKE RESNICK
Mike Resnick, along with editing the first seven years of Galaxy’s Edge magazine, was the winner of five Hugos from a record thirty-seven nominations and was, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He was the author of over eighty novels, around 300 stories, three screenplays, and the editor of over forty anthologies. When he was not writing, Mike mentored new authors, taking great pride in his "writer children," being as dedicated in helping them reach their career milestones as achieving his own.
