Edition One · 2026

01 Key facts

Entry fee

Free. There is no fee, and no paid tier of any kind.

Who may enter

Anyone aged 18 or older on the submission deadline, anywhere in the world.

Language

Edition One is in English; multilingual pathways are on the roadmap. Responsible translation assistance is welcome — see the AI policy.

Length

1,500–2,500 words recommended. Hard ceiling: 2,625 words — entries above it are disqualified.

Entry limit

One entry per category, a maximum of two in total. The same piece may not be entered in both.

Originality

Original, previously unpublished nonfiction, not publicly available anywhere and not under consideration elsewhere.

Submissions open

September 8, 2026.

Submissions close

November 1, 2026.

The full official rules — including privacy, consent, and publication terms — will be published on this page before submissions open. Where this summary and the rules differ, the rules govern.

02 Category I — The Storm I Weathered

A true personal story about a challenge, transition, conflict, loss, failure, illness, injustice, isolation, discovery, or other meaningful experience — and what it left behind.

Possible subjects include health and disability, immigration and displacement, family and relationships, education, work and unemployment, financial hardship, caregiving, identity and belonging, grief and recovery, starting over, loneliness, parenthood, cultural change, an unexpected act of kindness — or a quiet experience that changed you. The storm does not have to appear dramatic to outsiders: a deeply specific, honestly told ordinary experience can be more powerful than an extraordinary event described without reflection.

The Prize will never be a competition over who has suffered most. Writers are judged on how meaningfully they communicate their experience, not on its perceived severity.

03 Category II — The Idea the Storm Left Behind

A narrative story about how a lived problem led you to imagine something better — a product, a service, a policy, a community initiative, a workplace change, a research direction, a new way of thinking.

This is not a startup pitch competition. You are not expected to provide a business plan, prototype, technical specification, or proof of feasibility. Tell the human story: what happened, what problem you experienced or observed, why it mattered, what the experience helped you understand, and what you now believe could be different. The idea is assessed as part of the story — not as an investment opportunity or a technical proposal.

If your idea may be patentable: do not reveal how an invention works. Keep enabling technical details, confidential mechanisms, and specifications out of your submission — public disclosure of an invention may affect patent rights in some jurisdictions. Tell us about the problem, your experience, and the change you imagine. StormIt is not providing legal advice; if in doubt, seek qualified patent advice before publication.

04Human authorship & AI

AI may assist the writer. It may not replace the person whose story is being told.

The submission form asks you to disclose the assistance you used — from “no AI assistance” through grammar, translation, outlining, feedback, or sentence-level editing. Disclosure will not automatically disadvantage you: the panel judges the final story, its authenticity, its specificity, and your ownership of the work. Shortlisted writers may be asked to confirm the truthfulness of central events, describe their writing process, or share an earlier draft — the purpose is to preserve trust in a prize built on lived experience, not to police prose with unreliable detection software. Writers who need dictation or transcription support to get their story onto the page are welcome; accessibility accommodation is not ghost-writing.

05 Your story stays yours

• Ownership. You keep ownership of your story, your lived experience, and any idea it describes. Entering transfers nothing to StormIt, the judges, or anyone else.
• Publication licence. Winners and selected finalists grant StormIt a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to edit, publish, translate, and promote the selected story, with attribution — and publication happens only after you approve the edited version.
• First publication. Selected stories remain exclusive to StormIt for 60 days after publication. After that you may republish anywhere, with a “First published on StormIt” credit.
• Prize condition. Accepting a cash prize requires permitting publication of the winning entry; a writer who declines publication makes way for another entrant.
• Withdrawal. You may withdraw your entry at any time before publication. Withdrawing after the judging deadline simply forfeits consideration.

06Privacy, pen names & care

• Pen names are available in both categories. Your legal identity stays with the organizing team only, for eligibility and payment.
• Changed details. You may change names and identifying details to protect privacy; the published version may note that details were changed. Stories involving children get particular editorial care.
• Serious allegations against identifiable people or institutions get editorial and, where needed, legal review before publication — winning does not create a right to publish harmful material.
• Sensitive stories. We do not reward graphic detail because it is shocking, and we will not turn pain into promotional spectacle. Content notes are used where appropriate, and nothing is published without your approval of the final version.
• A limitation, stated plainly: the Prize is not a counselling or crisis-response service. If you are in immediate danger or crisis, please contact local emergency or crisis services first — the story can wait.

07 How judging works

1. 1

   Eligibility review

   The organizing team checks age, word count, category, consents, and AI disclosure. Non-compliant entries are removed before any literary reading.

2. 2

   First readers

   Entries are anonymized, then read by a trained team of first readers who reduce each category to roughly ten to twelve semifinalists, ranked by score.

3. 3

   Verification

   Semifinalists are screened for plagiarism, AI use, authorship, and conflicts of interest; flagged entries are removed and the top five to eight per category advance.

4. 4

   Final panel

   The judges read only the shortlist, score against the rubric, and deliberate. The chair confirms process, manages conflicts, and does not score; the published rules state the chair's tie-break authority.

Scores guide deliberation but do not replace it — the panel owns its choice. Judges and readers recuse themselves from entries by students, supervisees, collaborators, family, or anyone whose impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Sponsors never judge, never see unpublished entries or author identities, and never influence results. The judging panel will be announced before submissions open.

08 Edition One timeline

1. Sep 8, 2026Submissions open
2. Nov 1, 2026Submissions close
3. Nov 2 – 15Eligibility screening and first-reader evaluation
4. Nov 16 – 22Verification and final shortlist
5. Nov 23 – 29Final judging and deliberation
6. Week of Dec 7Winners announced and published
7. Dec 2026 – Jan 2027Selected finalists published, one or two stories a week

The StormIt Global Story Prize is hosted by StormIt, published by OCorp Innovations Ltd. This page is a summary, not legal advice; the official rules govern. Questions: writeyourstorm@stormit.ca