Winners of Codex Story Contests

Codex holds several short story contests of various kinds each year. Here is a complete history of those contests, including winners and (where applicable) where the winning stories have subsequently sold. Also listed are non-placing stories that sold.

2012

Codexian Idol

1. (tie) "A Spirited Education" by Tony Pi
   "Waking, Weeping and Four Weathered Wings" by Anaea Lay
2. "A Starscape Slightly Askew" by Nancy Fulda – The Gruff Variations: Writing for Charity Anthology, Vol. 1

Weekend Warrior

1. Steven R. Stewart
   • "The Cold Beyond the Pools" – Redstone Science Fiction
   • "Metal and Flesh" – Daily Science Fiction
2. Caroline M. Yoachim
3. Tina Connolly
4. Amanda E. Forrest
5. Helena Leigh Bell

• Lee Hallison
  • "Taking Care of Ma" – Daily Science Fiction
• Kat Otis
  • "Faerie Food" – Daily Science Fiction
• Eric James Stone
  • "Dark Roads for the Eternal Ruler" – Daily Science Fiction
• Elise Catherine Tobler
  • "Harder Trick Than Heart" – Jabberwocky 12

2011

Novella Contest

1. "It, Claudius" by John Murphy
2. "The Weight of the Sunrise" by Vylar Kaftan
3. "Barry's Tale" by Lawrence M. Schoen

Halloween Competition

1. "Notes from a Dead Man's House on the Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe" by Helena Leigh Bell
2. "Lion Dance" by Vylar Kaftan – Asimov's Science Fiction
3. "Roundabout" by Nathaniel Lee

• "Remains of the Witch" by Tony Pi – Intergalactic Medicine Show

Setting the Stage

1. "The Aliens Made of Glass" by Helena Bell
2. (tie) "Polar Unicorn" by Sylvia Sprunk Wrigley
   "What Is a Warrior Without His Wounds?" by Gray Rinehart

Codexian Idol

1. "In the Fading Light of Sundown" by Nancy Fulda – Intergalactic Medicine Show
2. "The Shackles of Memory" by Mike Wood
3. "When All is Said and Done" by K. G. Jewell

• "Yesterday's Taste" by Lawrence M. Schoen – Transitories

Weekend Warrior

1. Caroline M.Yoachim
   • "Deathbed" – Daily Science Fiction
   • "Mother Ship" – Lightspeed
2. Eric James Stone
   • "Nine Tenths of the Law" – Blood Lite 3: Aftertaste anthology
3. Jeff Stehman

• Scott W. Baker
  • "Not Rats" – Untied Shoelaces of the Mind
  • "Ten Seconds" – Daily Science Fiction
• SJ Driscoll
  • "In Vivo" – Daily Science Fiction
• Larry Hodges
  • "Life and Death and Bongo Drums" – Every Day Fiction
• K. G. Jewell
  • "Hints of the Apocalypse" – Daily Science Fiction
• Kenneth Kao
  • "Divine Joke" – Grand Science Fiction
  • "Only Backwards" – Daily Science Fiction
  • "Selfless" – Daily Science Fiction
• Keffy Kehrli
  • "Accompaniment" – 10Flash Quarterly
• Jessica M. Otis
  • "Counting Coup" – Daily Science Fiction
  • "Death & Taxes" – Every Day Fiction
• Allison Starkweather
  • "Upgrade" – Daily Science Fiction
• Steven R. Stewart
  • "Fool" – Brain Harvest
• Sylvia Spruck Wrigley
  • "Knight in Shining Armor" – Daily Science Fiction

2010

Halloween Competition

1. "The Child of Samhain" by Randy Henderson
2. "Lobstersaurus" by Eric James Stone – Analog Science Fiction & Fact
3. "Dark Swans" by Terra LeMay – Daily Science Fiction

Weekend Warrior

1. Tina Connolly
   • "Angel Plantation" – Daily Science Fiction
   • "Inflection" – Daily Science Fiction
   • "Recalculating" – Brain Harvest
2. Alexander Lumans
3. Helena Leigh Bell
   • "Please Return My Brother Who Is in Your Custody" – Brain Harvest (as "Please Return My Son Who Is in Your Custody")

• Samantha Henderson
  • "Beside Calais" – Strange Horizons
• Larry Hodges
  • "The Sanctimonious Time Traveler Trap" – Quantum Muse
• Amber D. Sistla
  • "Not the Chosen One" – Daily Science Fiction
  • "The Valley of Wonders" – Postscripts
  • "Unglued" – Nature
• Eric James Stone
  • "They Do It with Robots" – Daily Science Fiction
  • "To Serve Aliens (Yes, It's a Cookbook)" – Analog Science Fiction & Fact
• Rachel Swirsky
  • "Ghosts, Stamped and Inked" – Tor.com (as "The Monster's Million Faces")
  • "Tipping the Velvet" – Pank Magazine

Codexian Idol

1. "A Sweet Calling" by Tony Pi – Clarkesworld
2. "The Waverunner" by Jessica M. Otis
3. "Leaves Untrodden on a Timelike Path" by Eric James Stone

• "Movement" by Nancy Fulda – Asimov's Science Fiction

2009

Setting the Stage

1. "Robot People and the Flight of the Albino Peacock" by Helena Leigh Bell
2. "Lord of the Mountain" by Lisa Poh
3. "A Brooch of Bone, a Hint of Teeth" by Cat Rambo

Halloween Competition

1. "Return to Sender" by James Maxey – Intergalactic Medicine Show
2. "Stan Musial, Therapeutic Mathematics, and the Physics of Curve Balls" by Gray Rinehart – Analog Science Fiction & Fact as ("Therapeutic Mathematics and the Physics of Curve Balls")
3. (tie) "Counterclockwise" by Alethea Kontis – Intergalactic Medicine Show
   "Clockwork Fairies" by Cat Rambo – Tor.com

• "Migrating Bears" by Helena Leigh Bell – Daily Science Fiction
• "The Suicide Witch" by Vylar Kaftan – Daily Science Fiction
• "The Trouble with Truffles" by Rick Novy – M-Brane SF

Codexian Idol

1. "Aim for the Stars" by Tom Pendergrass – Intergalactic Medicine Show
2. "Sneaking the Peach" by Krista Hoeppner Leahy – Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (as "Killing Curses, a Caught-Heart Quest")
3. "This Changing Light" by Brian Dolton

• "Sensitive, Compartmented" by Gray Rinehart – Asimov's Science Fiction
  

Mega Weekend Warrior

1. "The Girl Who Was Loved By The Sea" by Spencer Ellsworth
2. "Rites of Man: A Hundred Years for the Heart of Scorpio" by Sara King
3. "Tattered Sky" by Laurel Amberdine

• "The Awakening" by Larry Hodges – Space & Time Magazine

Weekend Warrior

1. Caroline M. Yoachim
2. Tina Connolly
   • "Hard Choices" – Brain Harvest
3. Luc Reid

• D. T. Friedman
  • "There Are No Great Truths Here" – Flash Fiction Online
• Larry Hodges
  • "Memory of a Minefield" – Hypersonic Tales
  • "One Brushstroke at a Time" – Every Day Fiction
  • "Patsy at the Snake Show" – Beyond Centauri Magazine
  • "Rationalized" – Story Quest
• Adam Israel
  • "History of the Flesh" – The Crimson Pact anthology
• Katherine Sparrow
  • "The Jacob Miracle" – Brain Harvest
• Eric James Stone
  • "Buy You a Mockingbird" – Daily Science Fiction
  • "Early" – Intergalactic Medicine Show (as "An Early Ford Mustang")
  • "Girl Who Asks Too Much" – Daily Science Fiction
• Vylar Kaftan
  • "Sky and Sea" – Brain Harvest

2008

Halloween Competition

1. "Where Their Worm Dieth Not" by James Maxey – Masked anthology
2. (tie) "3 Minutes, 42 Seconds With Annabel Lee" by Scott Roberts – Intergalactic Medicine Show (as "The End-of-the-World Pool")
   "The Silent Familiar" by Cat Rambo – Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight

• "Wet Work: A Tale of the Unseen" by Matthew S. Rotundo – Realms of Fantasy

Codexian Idol

1. "Hey Tin Man" by Krista Hoeppner-Leahy – Shimmer (as "No Place Like Home, or Building the Yellow Brick Road")
2. "Into the West" by Eric James Stone – Intergalactic Medicine Show
3. "Hong Kong Rendezvous" by Tony Frazier

Weekend Warrior

1. Luc Reid
2. Gray Rinehart
3. Danielle Friedman

• Caroline M. Yoachim
  • "Firefly Igloo" – Shimmer
  • "Shades of Orange" – Daily Science Fiction
• Vylar Kaftan
  • "What President Polk Said" – Phantom anthology
• Eric James Stone
  • "Freefall" – Daily Science Fiction

2007

Setting the Stage Contest

1. "Mind-Diver" by Vylar Kaftan – Abyss & Apex
2. "Release" by Rebecca Roland
3. "Brilliant Things Instead of Weeping" by Laurel Amberdine

Codex Collaboration Contest

1. "Lights in the Orchard" by Luc Reid and Maya Lassiter

Halloween Competition

1. "She Sleeps" by Vylar Kaftan
2. "Diamond Tears from Emerald Eyes" by Eric James Stone – Intergalactic Medicine Show (as "Like Diamond Tears from Emerald Eyes")
3. "Right Before Your Very Eyes" by Matt Rotundo – Intergalactic Medicine Show

• "The Worm Within" by Cat Rambo – Clarkesworld

Codexian Idol

1. "Eater" by James Maxey
2. "No Love for the Middleman" by Tony Frazier – Strange Horizons
3. "Visits of the Dead" by Elise Catherine Tobler – Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (as "Beyond Porch and Portal")

• "Not Fade Away" by Nora Fleischer – Aoife's Kiss
• "Bots D'Amour" by Cat Rambo – Aoife's Kiss
• "Attitude Adjustment" by Eric James Stone – Analog Science Fiction & Fact
• "Dreaming of a Broken Neck" by Vylar Kaftan – Redstone Science Fiction (as "Witness")

2006

Halloween Competition

1. "Silent as Dust" by James Maxey – Intergalactic Medicine Show
2. "Like Rain from Silver Skies" by Nancy Fulda
3. "Something Wicked this Way Plumbs" by Vylar Kaftan – Shimmer

• "Thresher" by Lawrence M. Schoen – Breach the Hull, Dark Quest
• "Take This, and Eat" by Matthew S. Rotundo – Cthulhu 2012

Codexian Idol

1. "A Shadow Cast by Angel's Wings" by James Maxey – Intergalactic Medicine Show (as "To Know All Things That Are In The Earth")
2. "A Lincoln in Time" by Eric James Stone – Digital Science Fiction
3. "The Dog Prince" by Rachel Ann Dryden

• "Mars Needs Baby Seals" by Lawrence M. Schoen – Destination: Future, Hadley Rille Books
• "Fold, Spindle, and Mutilate" by Mary Robinette Kowal – The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination
• "Whim of Fortune" by Nancy Fulda – Asimov's Science Fiction (as "Backlash")
• "Magnetic Monopoly " by Rick Novy – Tales of the Talisman
• "The Circle Unbroken" by Tom Pendergrass – Return of the Raven

2005

Halloween Competition

1. "The Scream" by Nancy Fulda – NewMyths
2. "The Echo of the Eye" by James Maxey – The Blotter
3. "Death Haiku Under a New Sun" by Luc Reid

• "Get The Door, It's Dominique" by David Gill – HarperCollins (expanded into a novel, Soul Enchilada)
• "Waiting for Raymond" by Eric James Stone – Daily Science Fiction

Fairy Tale Contest

1. "Bird Dropping and Sunday" by Eric James Stone – The Immersion Book of Science Fiction
2. (tie) "Urban Renewal" by Tom Pendergass – Shimmer
   "Hound of Colony" by Luc Reid
3. "Sunday" by Alethea Kontis – Realms of Fantasy
   

Get the Juices Flowing Contest

1. "By the Hands of Juan Peron" by Eric James Stone
2. (tie) "Crocodile Baby" by Alethea Kontis – Rebel Wings, Rebel Books UK (as "Alligator Baby")
   "Bartalan's Choice" by David Walton – Futurismic (as "The Towers of St Michaels")
3. "She Talks to Angels" by Matthew Champine
   

2004

Halloween Competition

1. "Dark-Foot Hugh" by Luc Reid
2. "The Final Flight of the Blue Bee" by James Maxey – Asimov's Science Fiction
3. "Nobody Dogs the Monkey" by Tom Pendergrass – Aberrant Dreams (as "Follow the Monkey")

• "The Woman Who Hated Halloween" by Matthew S. Rotundo – Damnation Books