CQT announces the Quantum Shorts 2013 flash fiction competition

After the runaway success of last year's short film competition, CQT is now looking for quantum "flash fiction". We are challenging people to take inspiration from quantum theory to come up with a short story that is no longer than 1000 words.

The competition is in partnership with Scientific American and Tor Books, the leading science fiction and fantasy publisher.

We're launching with some excellent short stories by scientists and authors that we hope will get you thinking. Then you can get writing: you have until 23:59 EST on 1 December 2013 to enter. Visit our competition website at shorts.quantumlah.org for inspiration, information on how to enter and the contest rules. Entries will be assessed by an impressive panel of judges, including CQT director Artur Ekert, renowned Harvard University physicist Lisa Randall, Mariette DiChristina, editor in chief of Scientific American, short story expert Tania Hershman, thriller writer Mark Alpert and New York Times bestselling science fiction author John Scalzi. They will select the winners and runner-ups in three different categories: Open International, Student International and Student Singapore. The public will vote and decide the People's choice prize in the Open International category. Winners will receive a trophy, a cash prize and a one-year digital subscription to ScientificAmerican.com. The winner of the Open International category will be featured on ScientificAmerican.com.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor at Tor Books, is another judge. He points out the value of having imaginative writers interact with the frontiers of science. "Science fiction can't tell us what science will discover," he says. "But it can often tell us how we'll feel about it when that happens." CQT organised the competition to foster interest in quantum theory as a description of how the world works and as an enabler of technologies. Aspiring writers can visit the competition website's inspiration pages for ideas, and sign up for the Quantum Shorts 2013 newsletter to keep up with competition news.