2025 Dell Award Winners
“Echo” by Liam Betts of Vanderbilt University is the winner of the 2025 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.
The complete list of honors is:
- First Runner-up: “Black Gold” by Emma Kerkman from Hamilton College
- Second Runner-up: “Luminaire” by Maya King from Skidmore College
- Third Runner-up: “Paradox Police” by Birch Norman from the University of Toronto
Honorable mentions:
- “Flyworks in the Stratosphere” by Nicodemus Bechtold from Virginia Tech University
- “Beast of War” by Dylan Halsted from Goucher College
- “I v. I” by Katerina Krizner from Vanderbilt University
- “The Anomaly” by Jadyn Straigis from Goucher College
The award is “given annually to the best short-story written in the science fiction or fantasy genres by a full-time undergraduate college student,” and is accompanied by a $500 cash prize, a plaque, publication in Asimov’s, and an invitation to ICFA (International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts).
The Dell Magazines Award, formerly the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, was established in 1993 by Asimov’s and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. The awards are co-sponsored by Asimov’s magazine and the IAFA, and supported by the Graduate Program in Creative Writing, low-residency MFA, and MA, Western Colorado University.
For more information, visit the Dell Award website or past Locus coverage of the Dell Awards.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
