NYC Midnight
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Inspiring challenges for storytellers. Next up is the 250-word Microfiction Challenge on December 5th at https://nycmidnight.com/250.
The Final Round of the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), appreciating (action), and a business card (object). Best of luck to the 88 finalists with their 500-word stories over the next 48 hours!
November 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM
The Final Round of the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), appreciating (action), and a business card (object). Best of luck to the 88 finalists with their 500-word stories over the next 48 hours!
The winners of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 have been announced at nycmidnight.co/4o7rMJa! Congratulations to Leila Murton Poole (UK) for adding the win to her collection, which now stands at a total of five across all our challenges. Thanks to everyone who participated!
Final Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The Final Round results of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025! This page contains the top 10 stories and honorable mentions from the fourth and final challenge of the competition.
nycmidnight.co
November 14, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The winners of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 have been announced at nycmidnight.co/4o7rMJa! Congratulations to Leila Murton Poole (UK) for adding the win to her collection, which now stands at a total of five across all our challenges. Thanks to everyone who participated!
The 2nd Round results for the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at bit.ly/4pfpxEx! Congratulations to the top four in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, November 14th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
2nd Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The 2nd Round results from the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025.
bit.ly
November 14, 2025 at 3:49 AM
The 2nd Round results for the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at bit.ly/4pfpxEx! Congratulations to the top four in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, November 14th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
The 2nd Round of the Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/theme/emotion assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/3WHZFoA. Best of luck to the 432 participating writers over the next three days!
nycmidnight.co
November 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM
The 2nd Round of the Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/theme/emotion assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/3WHZFoA. Best of luck to the 432 participating writers over the next three days!
The 1st Round results for the Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 are up at www.nycmidnight.com/rsc/2025-1st...! Congratulations to the top 8 in each group for advancing to the 2nd Round, which kicks off this Thursday, November 6th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
1st Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The 1st Round results from the Rhyming Story Challenge 2025.
www.nycmidnight.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
The 1st Round results for the Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 are up at www.nycmidnight.com/rsc/2025-1st...! Congratulations to the top 8 in each group for advancing to the 2nd Round, which kicks off this Thursday, November 6th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
The Scary Story Challenge 2025 is officially underway! View your scare/action/character assignment, a countdown to the deadline, and upload link at bit.ly/3X3VZ0i. Best of luck to the 3,600+ writers participating worldwide over the next 48 hours, and Happy Halloween! #ScaryStoryChallenge
bit.ly
November 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM
The Scary Story Challenge 2025 is officially underway! View your scare/action/character assignment, a countdown to the deadline, and upload link at bit.ly/3X3VZ0i. Best of luck to the 3,600+ writers participating worldwide over the next 48 hours, and Happy Halloween! #ScaryStoryChallenge
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off TONIGHT, and there is still time to register! When the competition begins at 11:59 PM New York time, writers worldwide will be challenged to craft scary stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/scary. Happy Halloween! 🎃
Scary Story Challenge — nycmidnight
The Scary Story Challenge is a creative writing competition that challenges writers worldwide to create scary short stories based on assigned prompts in 48 hours.
www.nycmidnight.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:19 PM
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off TONIGHT, and there is still time to register! When the competition begins at 11:59 PM New York time, writers worldwide will be challenged to craft scary stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/scary. Happy Halloween! 🎃
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off in one week! On October 31st, writers worldwide will be challenged to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers! #scary #scarystories
October 24, 2025 at 3:17 PM
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off in one week! On October 31st, writers worldwide will be challenged to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers! #scary #scarystories
The 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2026 kicks off on March 20th! The 7th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create very short stories based on genre, action, and word assignments in 24 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/100. Good luck, writers!
The 100-word Microfiction Challenge — nycmidnight
The 100-word Microfiction Challenge is an international creative writing competition that challenges participants to create very short stories based on genre, action, and word assignments in just 24 h...
www.nycmidnight.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
The 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2026 kicks off on March 20th! The 7th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create very short stories based on genre, action, and word assignments in 24 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/100. Good luck, writers!
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off next Friday, October 31st! The inaugural competition will challenge writers worldwide to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers! #scary #scarystories
October 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The Scary Story Challenge kicks off next Friday, October 31st! The inaugural competition will challenge writers worldwide to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers! #scary #scarystories
The 23rd annual Screenwriting Challenge kicks off on February 13th and will challenge writers worldwide to create short screenplays based on genre, subject, and character assignments. Learn more, register, and read previous winners at www.nycmidnight.com/scc. Good luck, writers! #screenwriting
The Screenwriting Challenge — nycmidnight
The Screenwriting Challenge is an annual screenplay competition that challenges writers around the world to create short screenplays based on genre, subject, and character assignments in as little as ...
www.nycmidnight.com
October 15, 2025 at 7:37 PM
The 23rd annual Screenwriting Challenge kicks off on February 13th and will challenge writers worldwide to create short screenplays based on genre, subject, and character assignments. Learn more, register, and read previous winners at www.nycmidnight.com/scc. Good luck, writers! #screenwriting
The 2nd Round of the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/action/object assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/46SLX6W. Best of luck to the 880 participating writers over the next 48 hours!
nycmidnight.co
October 4, 2025 at 4:00 AM
The 2nd Round of the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/action/object assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/46SLX6W. Best of luck to the 880 participating writers over the next 48 hours!
The 1st Round results for the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/4gQYNXG! Congratulations to the top 10 in each group for advancing to the 2nd Round, which kicks off this Friday, October 3rd. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
1st Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The 1st Round results from the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025.
nycmidnight.co
October 2, 2025 at 2:18 AM
The 1st Round results for the 500-word Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/4gQYNXG! Congratulations to the top 10 in each group for advancing to the 2nd Round, which kicks off this Friday, October 3rd. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
The 20th annual Short Story Challenge kicks off on January 23rd and will challenge writers worldwide to create short stories based on genre, subject, and character assignments. Learn more, register, and read previous winning stories at www.nycmidnight.com/ssc. Good luck, writers!
The Short Story Challenge — nycmidnight
The Short Story Challenge is an annual creative writing competition that challenges writers around the world to create short stories based on genre, subject, and character assignments in as little as ...
www.nycmidnight.com
September 29, 2025 at 6:41 PM
The 20th annual Short Story Challenge kicks off on January 23rd and will challenge writers worldwide to create short stories based on genre, subject, and character assignments. Learn more, register, and read previous winning stories at www.nycmidnight.com/ssc. Good luck, writers!
We would like to send a hearty congratulations to long-time participant Paulene Turner on the publication of her most recent book, Heartbeats! Heartbeats is a compilation of short stories in a variety of genres, and most were created for our challenges. Learn more at shorturl.at/cGkEW.
September 27, 2025 at 5:55 PM
We would like to send a hearty congratulations to long-time participant Paulene Turner on the publication of her most recent book, Heartbeats! Heartbeats is a compilation of short stories in a variety of genres, and most were created for our challenges. Learn more at shorturl.at/cGkEW.
The Final Round of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), A visitor center/centre (location), and leftover food (object). Best of luck to the 66 finalists with their 1,000-word stories over the next 48 hours!
September 20, 2025 at 3:59 AM
The Final Round of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), A visitor center/centre (location), and leftover food (object). Best of luck to the 66 finalists with their 1,000-word stories over the next 48 hours!
The 2nd Round results for the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/3IrOVXO! Congratulations to the top three in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, September 19th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
2nd Round Results — nycmidnight
The 2nd Round results from the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025.
nycmidnight.co
September 18, 2025 at 12:37 AM
The 2nd Round results for the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/3IrOVXO! Congratulations to the top three in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, September 19th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!
We finally have a winner of the Short Story Challenge 2025! Congratulations to D.R. Forge (New York, USA) for taking the grand prize with their story, "When Dragons Do Laundry." Check out the full list of 2025 winners at nycmidnight.co/4gfpghq. Thanks to all who participated!
Final Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The Final Round results of the Short Story Challenge 2025! This page contains the top 10 stories and honorable mentions from the fourth and final round of the competition.
nycmidnight.co
September 11, 2025 at 2:11 AM
We finally have a winner of the Short Story Challenge 2025! Congratulations to D.R. Forge (New York, USA) for taking the grand prize with their story, "When Dragons Do Laundry." Check out the full list of 2025 winners at nycmidnight.co/4gfpghq. Thanks to all who participated!
The Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 is officially underway! View the genre/theme/emotion assignments, a countdown to the deadline, and upload link at nycmidnight.co/3VxkSRo. Best of luck to the 1,500+ writers participating worldwide over the next 8 days!
1st Round Assignments 2025 — nycmidnight
The Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 is officially underway! This page contains the 1st Round assignments, a countdown to the submission deadline, details on how to upload your story, and more. Good…
nycmidnight.co
September 6, 2025 at 4:01 AM
The Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 is officially underway! View the genre/theme/emotion assignments, a countdown to the deadline, and upload link at nycmidnight.co/3VxkSRo. Best of luck to the 1,500+ writers participating worldwide over the next 8 days!
The Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 kicks off tonight, and there is still time to register! The 4th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create short rhyming stories based on genre, theme, and emotion assignments. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/rhyme. Good luck!
The Rhyming Story Challenge — nycmidnight
The Rhyming Story Challenge is a creative writing competition that challenges writers worldwide to create rhyming stories based on three assigned prompts in as little as 48 hours.
www.nycmidnight.com
September 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
The Rhyming Story Challenge 2025 kicks off tonight, and there is still time to register! The 4th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create short rhyming stories based on genre, theme, and emotion assignments. Learn more and register at www.nycmidnight.com/rhyme. Good luck!
We would like to send out a massive congrats to Joanne Yi on her debut novel, "All the Tomorrows After"! Joanne helped out behind the scenes with NYC Midnight for several years before moving on to focus on her novel, which was an August Book of the Month pick. Learn more at her website, joanneyi.com
September 3, 2025 at 2:36 PM
We would like to send out a massive congrats to Joanne Yi on her debut novel, "All the Tomorrows After"! Joanne helped out behind the scenes with NYC Midnight for several years before moving on to focus on her novel, which was an August Book of the Month pick. Learn more at her website, joanneyi.com
We're proud to present the winning story from last year's Rhyming Challenge! Get the tissues ready, and read "Motel-day" by Louise Walton (Australia) at bit.ly/motel-day. Original illustration by @znayberg. Enjoy, and get ready for this year's Rhyming Challenge on Friday!
Motel-day — nycmidnight
An Aussie ballad: A son recalls days of hay-making, burnt chicken and gobstopper-filled family road trips to Aunty Jo's as he visits his unstoppable Dad for the very last time. Length: 490 words Ye...
bit.ly
September 2, 2025 at 3:20 PM
We're proud to present the winning story from last year's Rhyming Challenge! Get the tissues ready, and read "Motel-day" by Louise Walton (Australia) at bit.ly/motel-day. Original illustration by @znayberg. Enjoy, and get ready for this year's Rhyming Challenge on Friday!
Check out the 2nd place story from last year's Rhyming Story Challenge, "The God of Giving Up" by Alexandria Bellani (Canberra, Australia), at bit.ly/45VZc6l. The original illustration is by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy, and get ready for this year's Rhyming Story Challenge on September 5th!
The God of Giving Up — nycmidnight
An elderly woman accepts her fate among the stars. Length: 448 words Year: 2024
bit.ly
August 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Check out the 2nd place story from last year's Rhyming Story Challenge, "The God of Giving Up" by Alexandria Bellani (Canberra, Australia), at bit.ly/45VZc6l. The original illustration is by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy, and get ready for this year's Rhyming Story Challenge on September 5th!
A huge congratulations to Christy Hartman (Canada) for winning the 100-word Microfiction Challenge for the second consecutive year with her final round story, "Impossible Choice." Check out the full list of 2025 winners at nycmidnight.co/4p1p5KM. Thanks to all who participated!
Final Round Results 2025 — nycmidnight
The results are in for the Final Round of the 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2025! This page contains the top 10 stories and honorable mentions from the final round of the competition.
nycmidnight.co
August 28, 2025 at 3:26 AM
A huge congratulations to Christy Hartman (Canada) for winning the 100-word Microfiction Challenge for the second consecutive year with her final round story, "Impossible Choice." Check out the full list of 2025 winners at nycmidnight.co/4p1p5KM. Thanks to all who participated!
We’re happy to announce that we'll be publishing the top 3 stories from last year’s Rhyming Story Challenge! First up is the 3rd place story, “The End of Nanga Brook” by David Trunkfield (Perth, Australia), at nycmidnight.co/47N21sO. Original illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy!
The End of Nanga Brook — nycmidnight
In January 1961, bushfires destroyed the town of Nanga Brook in south-west Western Australia. It was never rebuilt. Length: 448 words Year: 2024
nycmidnight.co
August 27, 2025 at 4:02 PM
We’re happy to announce that we'll be publishing the top 3 stories from last year’s Rhyming Story Challenge! First up is the 3rd place story, “The End of Nanga Brook” by David Trunkfield (Perth, Australia), at nycmidnight.co/47N21sO. Original illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy!