The annual Lovecraftian Microfiction contest is open! 

All stories must be submitted by Friday, September 11, 2026.

>>> Submit your Entry <<<

What is it?

Micro Fiction is very short prose fiction. Smaller than Flash Fiction but bigger than a haiku. Usually 500 words or less. There are some famous short short stories, including Hemingway’s - For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Lovecraftian fiction usually takes the form of Cosmic Horror, Weird Fiction, or Speculative or Science Fiction with a Horror twist, as well as horror or ghost stories with an uncanny tone.

According to Lovecraft, “The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.”

Why Lovecraftian Micro Fiction?

Lovecraft himself wrote some extremely short fiction. "Memory," "What the Moon Brings," and "Ex Oblivione" are examples. Micro Fiction is a fun way to explore a genre or topic in a challenging way. Can you write a complete story in this limited amount of space? By complete story, we mean a character, situation, beginning, middle, and end. Not a vignette, not a character study, but a story.

Stories must be 500 words or less. **Entries of more than 500 words will be disqualified with no refund and will not be read. Please check your word count before submitting! Most word processing programs have a built in word counter. There are also web sites for this, like wordcounter.net

Go HERE For the Full Rules and Guidelines

2025 Award winners!

And the 2025 winners are:

• Best Feature: A Blind Bargain, by Paul Bunnell
• Best Short: "Stargazer" by Justin Robert Vinall
• Best Adaptation: "The Outsider" by A. Burnett
• Audience Choice: "There is No Anti-memetics Division" by Adria Lang
• Best Screenplay: "His Father's House" by Kenneth Lawrence
• Screenplay Finalists:
  • "Slumber" by Jared Michael Delaney
  • "Black Dog Burrows" by Jchon Perkins
  • "The Pit" by Duncan B. Putney
• Lovecraft Under the Gun: "Popthulhu" by Trash People From the Dump

In addition to the Film and Screenplay Awards, we host a Lovecraftian MicroFiction contest each year. The top winners get published in a limited edition book along with that year's Challenge From Beyond, although this year's book ended up being more of an anthology to go along with the Cthulhu on the High Seas theme. The book will be available on arkhambazaar.com soon!

The 2026 Microfiction contest winners are:

"Windows" by Erik Gorka (overall winner)
"Under the Lake" by Matt Sprague
"The Black Sybil" by Russell W. Bynum
"The Coffee House Illuminati" by Brian Garbe
"It's a Job" by Emilio T. Jasso
"02/02/2020" by Aaron Ostrum
"Blemish" by James McRobert
"Blackberry, Blackberry" by David Haas
"The Room in the Library" by Chad Antil
"Floaters" by Jason Bulmahn
"The Second Act" by Kai R. Hastur
"Bite Your Little Toes" by Tim Uren
"The Necropocrypha" by Rick Hutchins
"A New King is Born" by Josef B. Wilke
"I Remember" by Bob Brinkman
"Star 25" by Pat Harrigan
"Terra Sing" by MM DeHart
"Alice" by Felicia Martinez
"Warm Cup of Void" by Luke Zwanziger
"Former Occupants" by Vincent J. Molina

Congratulations to all the filmmakers and screenwriters involved in this year's festival!

The 30th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival is now taking place September 19-21st on all three screens of the Hollywood Theatre.

Originally scheduled two weeks later, the Hollywood Theatre encountered a booking issue with an upcoming program that is critical to their work and fundraising for the Hollywood historic film district project. The Hollywood Theatre needs to commit to a full run of the program with multiple day/night showings for several weeks without interruption, which interferes with our festival.

The kind folk at the Hollywood did their best to work with the studio to maintain our original dates, but it simply could not work with their requirements. The Hollywood has been a two decade plus partner of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, hosting us since 2001, and has become a beloved community hub for the event. We considered - with the Hollywood’s assistance - another venue to maintain the original dates. However, no other theater in Portland has the combination of enough space and multiple auditoriums to accommodate our programming (as well as special super secret  30th anniversary events we have planned), and their amazing and meticulous staff, whom ensure that the festival not only showcases the exceptional quality of new and classic Cosmic Horror on film, but also provide the comfortable and friendly base of operations for our community that you have all come to love about the Hollywood Theatre. 

We believe in the Hollywood, in the work they’re doing, including the development of the historic film district, and that that work is important for the city, and the future of all events that take place at the beautiful and historic Hollywood Theatre, including ours. 

Most importantly, they believe in us. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store this September, for the 30th Anniversary H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival! Mark the new dates on your calendar, and keep every one of those eyes open for news!

Our annual Kickstarter Fundraising campaign for the in-person festival Oct 4-6th in Portland, OR and our separate streaming event Oct 18-22nd on Eventive is open now!

In the Kickstarter:

• You can pledge for the in-person event which takes place October 4-6th on all 3 screens of the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR
• You can also pledge for Deluxe tickets the streaming event October 18-22nd. Available to stream worldwide. (Plain streaming tickets will be available later.)
• Regular general admission tickets for the Portland event will be available soon through the Hollywood Theatre and the HPLFF website

Pledge for VIP Experiences, meet our Guest of Honor Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, The Endless, Synchronic), see 50+ short and feature films, attend author readings, panel discussions, live performances, and more!

BACK THE CAMPAIGN before it ends on Sunday, September 22nd, 8 pm Pacific Time.