Our 2025
contest winner
Community update, 10 Feb 2025
After months of deliberation -- several more than anticipated -- we've officially got a winner for this year's contest!
Congratulations go out to Theodoric Weicksel of Vancouver Island, Canada with his story, Default Gravity!
After letting him know of his victory, we asked Theodoric several interview questions to get to know the 2025 winner of the Aluminium Crown.
How did you find out about the contest?
I found it on Reedsy, amongst there contest postings!
What will you do with the prize money if you win the contest?
Probably stop putting off buying the Scrivener software, and take my partner for a nice dinner.
What are your long and short term dreams for your writing career?
In the short term I am part of a Science Fiction Anthology that is being published by Northridge Publishing here in BC, Canada where I live. I am excited about the short story and look forward to seeing it in the wild! In the long-term I am working on my debut fantasy novel, which I am hoping to publish this year. I would love to one day be a full-time writer and make a living telling stories. Only time will tell if that is the future I can scrape together or not!
You're alone in the Simpson Desert after crashing your first solo light plane journey, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and you see an eastern short-necked turtle crawling toward you. You reach down and you flip the turtle over on its back. The turtle lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot Australian sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?
I love animals and would never leave a turtle to die. Most likely that means that in my dehydration fueled hallucinations, the turtle was incessantly mocking me and my withered husk of a mind could not bear to accept the sheer volume of mental derision that the turtle had spewed upon my person. I hope the turtle survives and that bad karma doesn't leave me to provide a skeletal warning to the next lost traveler.
Unfortunately, due to issues with AI submissions and fundraising, we are only giving one prize out this year. Apologies. As per the contest page, it is the first year of the contest and there are many kinks to work out. Further, the contest is inherently messy, as it is powered by waste. Lots of love to you all out there in internet land.
A big thanks to all entrants, human and robot alike. Also a big thanks to our judges this year, Jacky T, Jessie and Oisín.
The Aluminium Crown will be back at some soon. We'll hopefully have a new and improved website. We've learnt a lot this year. Until then, don't crush your cans! Keep up the good fight! Keep writing!