Short Story Competition 2026
At university, we somehow are constantly surrounded by walls. Walls that can be decorated, climbed, walked through, dug under, covered with stickers, or ignored. Walls that offer protection, cast shadows, mark boundaries, and ex- or include. Walls that are brand new or dilapidated, with or without a roof. Walls that can be a thousand things at once, and perhaps also a source of inspiration for your story.
Conditions of participation
For the 2026 short story competition, we seek prose texts driven by the keywords „WÄNDE | WALLS“. We welcome submission from students and staff of Münster University or students from other academic institutions in Münster. The texts must not exceed 7,500 characters (including spaces). Since the texts are to be submitted anonymously to the jury, author names should only be noted in the accompanying email. The winners will receive prize money totalling 1,500 euros.
Send your short story – in German or in English or both – as a PDF file (text 1.5 lines) by 31.01.2026 to: kultur@uni-muenster.de. The winning texts will be presented in an author reading in May 2026 and will appear in print.Regarding AI
For those who decide to work with AI, such as ChatGPT, we recommend the following: Use AI as your faithful companion. But preserve the essence of your creativity, preserve the authenticity of your voice, and ensure that your stories showcase your originality. We are counting on your sense of responsibility, because fantastic stories can be created in collaboration with AI, and we are excited to see what you will conjure up.
However, please let us know if you have used AI, because what is AI other than the collective achievement of all authors whose works were used (without permission) to train the AI?
Award ceremony
The award ceremony with author readings will take place as part of the NEUE WÄNDE festival in May 2026. The festival runs from May 8 to May 10. The exact date for the award ceremony will be set in January 2026.
Previous competitions
Short Story Competition 2024 "Vergessen"
The winning texts in the UniKunstKultur magazine winter 2024/25 [de/en]
Short Story Competition 2022 "Green Tales"
The winning texts in the UniKunstKultur magazine [de]
The winning texts in SATURA [en]