Art of the Near Future World: April 1, 2026 selection & celebration

Come join to pick and celebrate the best short stories & flash fiction ('fragments') written recently that imagine life in our near future world, the world three months to a few years out.

At the event, we'll spend the first half reading the various selected short fiction pieces, and then we'll spend the second half discussing what grabbed us about them and voting on winners.

You do not need to do any prep work to come to the event, and here's a recap of our October event that gives more of a feel for what the event is like.

Ahead of April 1st, here are further ways to help out or get involved.

1. Recommend by March 25th the best short story (< 10,00 words) published anywhere between October 2025 - March 2026 that is set in our near future world. Use this to refer a short story. We're awarding $100 to the first person to refer the story we eventually pick. And at the event we'll select the best short story and award its author $250.
2. Write and submit by March 25th your own flash fiction (or fragment), a < 1,000 word piece submitted by someone (maybe you!) set in our near future world. We'll pick one piece to receive a $250 prize. Use this to submit your work.

But you do not need to recommend or submit a story to attend - we'll focus together on selecting and celebrating the best work.

Background

• Go to artneartfuture.world for more inspiration and motivation for this project.
• Art of the near future world is a project by Ramon Gonzalez. My website with other projects and writing is at ramongonzalez.com.
• To follow along on this work, I'll be posting for now via my substack Spheres of Possibility. Subscribe there to get more announcements.
• If you'd like to be more involved – in helping set up the event, curate art, take this more online, or bring this further to life and scale – please get in touch: [email protected].

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