DEADLINE: Write Before Midnight

To start the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ 80th year of publication, we are launching a short fiction contest called “Write Before Midnight," which will be judged by acclaimed American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Submitted stories can be about any of the existential threats the Bulletin covers: nuclear weapons, climate change, biological and chemical weapons, artificial intelligence, killer robots, doomsday drone submarines, bioengineered zombies, the gray goo of nanotechnology gone wild, and so, so much more. The stories can be dystopian or utopian; pre-, post-, or non-apocalyptic. They can be optimistic as Sesame Street or dark as Edgar Allan Poe’s basement. Entries can be of any genre: high literature and potboiler noir will vie on a level playing field; scifi, fantasy, spy, detective, horror, and even romance tales will be not just allowed, but celebrated. The tales can be comic, tragic, ironic, satiric, or any kind of -ic at all, and they can be of any length—up to 7,000 words.

The stories must have a connection to the Bulletin’s interest in (avoiding) the Apocalypse. The connection doesn’t have to be central to the story.

No fee to enter.

Prizes: $3,000 for first place, with $500 each to four runners-up. All five of the winning stories will be featured in the January 2026 issue of the Bulletin’s bimonthly magazine.

Deadline: Sep 30, 2025

More information.