Nothing But Voices Challenge Winners

For Nothing But Voices, we asked writers to build complete short stories using only dialogue, with no descriptions or guidance beyond what the voices themselves could carry.

The response to this challenge was especially strong, and judging it was difficult for all the right reasons. Many entries understood that the real work of dialogue happens between the lines. The most compelling pieces trusted silence, evasion, and contradiction to do their part, allowing setting, history, and emotional stakes to emerge through what was said and what was avoided.

🏆 Winners

flotsam by Hannah Moore

Hannah Moore builds tension through relentless shifts in control and escalating pressure, letting each clipped exchange sharpen the conflict without ever stepping outside the characters’ voices. The evasion and persistence between patient and clinician unfold through contradiction and silence, allowing unsettling truths to surface.

Pity by Silver Daux

Silver Daux lets the voices collide in sharp, escalating turns, using contradiction and partial admissions to heighten emotional stakes and reveal how much bitterness lies beneath what the characters refuse to say.

Tea? by River and Celia in Underland

River and Celia keep the exchange tight through clipped offers and refusals, with tension and old resentments surfacing in each hesitated reply. What they avoid saying gives shape to the loss, and the bond between them.

"My Bed or Yours?" by Lightning Bolt ⚡

Lightning Bolt ⚡ keeps the back-and-forth volatile, with insult and intimacy ricocheting as the speakers lurch between bravado and admission; what they refuse to name gives the piece its chilling sense of complicity.

Ten Years by Alexandria Hypatia

Alexandria Hypatia drives tension through colliding voices as accusation turns toward vulnerability. Contradiction and unfinished thought expose distance and history between speakers

🎖️ Runners-up

• 🅼🅸🅳🅽🅸🅶🅷🆃 🆂🅽🅰🅲🅺🆂 by Lamar Wiggins
• Stay On The Line Please! by Lori A. A.
• This Is Not a Drill by Penny Fuller
• What The Desert Keeps by Leslie L. Stevens Writer | Marfa, Texas
• A Name is a Weapon, a Name Is a Balm by Jennifer A. G.
• Bless me Father by JBaz
• Almost Certain by Imola Tóth
• but you're not a stranger by Cali Loria
• The Conversation Clause by Danielle Eckhart
• Creep by Sandor Szabo
• In the Eye of the Storm by Bridget Couture
• Borrowed Dress, Borrowed Air by Aspen Noble
• Let's Don't Do This by Shirley Belk
• Mama by Cathy Schieffelin
• The Art of Burning by Fathi Jalil

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Unknown Number by Annie Valenti
• Creature Comfort by Guia Nocon
• Broken Vision by Liam Storm
• Forbidden by Melissa
• Wait... by Monica Carneiro
• Whatever It Is by Paul Stewart
• 4:15 PM by Aubrey Rebecca
• The Crossing by Tim Carmichael
• Someone Moved the Ocean by E.K. Daniels
• Did You Lock the Back Door? by Lawrence Lease

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