You might be thinking to yourself, “The world doesn’t need any more awards for short stories,” but...

The Foofs aim to spotlight the writers who are doing things a little bit differently. The surreal and absurd; the speculative and magical; and the weird and experimental short fiction from the wonderful community of writers and literary magazines.

Guidelines

As The Foofs are young, we are starting with four categories of fiction:

• Super short stories (less than 2,500 words)
• Short stories (2,501 to 5,000 words)
• Medium stories (5,001 to 7,500 words)
• Long stories (7,501 to 20,000 words)

For the 2025 edition of The Foofs, stories must have been published for the first time during the calendar year of 2025 (January 1st to December 31st).

Nominations can be made anytime between April 1, 2025, and January 15th, 2026, but the earlier, the better!

Eligibility

Stories published in Foofaraw are ineligible.

Nominating as a reader

Readers can nominate two stories they did not write.

Nominating as a writer

The Foofs are open to any and all writers to nominate two of their own stories (must be in different categories). We want to receive the stories you are most proud of.

Self-published stories are ineligible.

When submitting your own story, it must have been accepted and published by a market you have no part in (editor, slush reader, volunteer, etc.) before the end of 2025.

As long as your story was published by a legitimate and reputable market, it's eligible for you to nominate it yourself. Web or print; anthology or magazine; etc.

Nominating as an editor or publisher

Editors and publishers from other markets can nominate two super short stories, two short stories, one medium story, and one long story that they published in 2025.

Publishers/editors are not eligible as authors submitting their own stories.

Nominating as a Foofaraw alum

Writers published in Foofaraw during the calendar year can nominate one additional story they had published elsewhere, as well as one additional story as a reader.

Things to do

• Each story nomination should be submitted separately.
• A link to the story (as evidence of publication) and a PDF or Word doc (material to be read and evaluated) are required if you are the author or editor/publisher.

Things not to do

• Nominating more stories than allowed will void all submitted stories.
• Stories published in Foofaraw (or by Foofaraw staff) are ineligible.
• Stories only published in audio are ineligible.
• Self-published stories are ineligible.

Disclaimer

Guidelines may change, but it’s free to submit. We are working on funding to provide tiny cash prizes to winners (a minimum of $200 will be awarded in total), maybe a small pillow “trophy”, and publication in our "best of weird" anthology alongside our “ordinary contest” winners and Foof favorites.

Submission Form

Direct link to nomination form | Nominations received (using the first four letters of "Author name" and the first four letters of your "Story name" i.e. "Kurt-Cats")

Questions?

Email us at foofs@foofaraw.press

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 48 hours.