September 12 · US · Jacob Seinemeier
Heller greets Astrid after she demolishes his car.
Unhuman Resources — Part 2 of 3
September 2026 Emoti shortlist
8 story categories · 48 nominations
Choose the stories, characters, and moments that deserve an Emoti.
Voting is complete. This is the archived shortlist for this month. The winners are published in Emoti Awards.
Voting deadline: . Email confirmations closed at this time.
See the September 2026 winnersHow voting works
- One confirmed ballot per email address for this month. Email confirmation verifies access to the address, not a person’s identity.
- Choose up to one nominee in each category; you may skip categories.
- Submit your choices, then open the confirmation email and choose Confirm ballot. Only confirmed votes count.
- To change your choices, submit a complete replacement with the same email and confirm it before voting closes. It replaces your earlier ballot, including skipped categories.
- Each author may receive one community story award per month. Their largest raw-vote victory margin takes priority; other awards pass to the next eligible author in vote order. Equal margins favor the category whose runner-up already has an award, then the category with more votes cast, then the larger first-to-third vote gap. Eligible nominees tied within a category share the award. Admins resolve any remaining choice of category for an author. Nominees with no votes cannot win.
- Individual and category vote totals and judges’ tie explanations remain admin-only. The winners and total number of participating voters are published after admin review. GOAT is separately judged and does not count toward the one-story-award limit.
- Your email and optional name are visible only to Write Club admins for managing this ballot. A matching verified author directory profile may supply your name. Neither is displayed publicly or added to a mailing list.
ROFL
Funniest authored line or exchange
Choose the authored line or exchange that made you laugh, considering its setup, wording, and timing.
6 nominees · unranked
September 17 · US · Kelley Tauffel / Fiction Shroom
Johnny photographs Melody while narrating a wildlife documentary.
An Almost Perfect Day
September 22 · US · Krislyn Lyon
The publisher asks when the whale appears; the author answers structurally versus emotionally.
We’ll Be In Touch — Chapter 1: Moby Nope
September 23 · US · William R. Crichton
The Pioneer-plaque explanation: humanity sent a nude before saying hello, then wondered why nobody replied.
Unsolicited Nudes
September 29 · US · Logan Raith
Emergency undressing triggers the narrator’s prom-night comparison.
Day One Patch 1.0 — Prologue: It Happened in a Fast-Casual Tex-Mex Joint
September 22 · EU/UK · Joshua Bader
The tutorial-skipping exchange ends by turning “stalkerish” into a guildmate’s name.
Welcome to Norrath — #1
HAWT
Most romantically compelling character
Choose the character whose attraction, tenderness, vulnerability, or chemistry most drew you into the romance.
6 nominees · unranked
September 3 · US · Megan Marrow
James — attentive banter, reading aloud and the interrupted near-kiss.
Post-Coconut Clarity
September 20 · US · Mark Posey
Anne — playful intimacy, shared gardening and a marriage readers want to inhabit.
The Summer Garden — Episode One: A Handful of Dirt
September 17 · US · Kelley Tauffel / Fiction Shroom
Johnny — affectionate husbandly playfulness that releases Melody’s tension.
An Almost Perfect Day
September 30 · EU/UK · Josi Sofer
Maela Ellerkonge — the fall, apology and flirtation that overturn Cardy’s bad mood.
Kuri U.S. Research — Part 1: For Open-Minded Men of Science
September 13 · US · Jay Allen Ford
Pete — awkward courtship, kindling without a plan, and respect for Mae’s private drawings.
The River Has Ears
September 25 · EU/UK · Anat Dagan
Joanna — a heroine whose renewed possibility of connection culminates in the rock handoff and touching fingers.
The Spark
NOPE
Scariest or most viscerally unsettling sequence
Choose the sequence that most effectively created fear, dread, or a visceral sense of unease.
6 nominees · unranked
September 2 · US · J. Libeque
The apartment’s accumulating discrepancies and the violation of private certainty.
Almost
September 8 · US · Brian C. Fahey
Frank drifts beyond rescue while Nelson must keep moving with inadequate oxygen.
Oxygen at ZERO
September 14 · US · Alexis Wright / Alexis Writes Fiction
The boy’s flayed body becomes a household object, with recognizable bodily traces still present.
Forgotten Things
September 26 · US · Eris Index
Dolly swallows the light as the forest appears to crawl over and absorb her.
Firefly on the Tongue
September 21 · EU/UK · Keenan Delaney
Jonas loses his daughter in the ash and crowd and fears recognizing her among the fallen.
The Route to Tessa — Interlude II: Jonas
September 28 · EU/UK · Lee Mannell
The silent watching pigs make Christine’s predicament feel doomed, culminating in the first crunch of bone.
Christine’s Last Patient
FLEX
Exceptional literary composition
Choose the passage with the strongest use of imagery, rhythm, diction, syntax, and sentence construction.
6 nominees · unranked
September 5 · US · Liudmila Brus
The abandoned library: sleeping terminals, waiting pages and the physical weight of its air.
To the Abyss and Back — Chapter 1: The Jewel Box
September 14 · US · Alexis Wright / Alexis Writes Fiction
The parents cup their phones like Tinker Bell’s fading light; belief becomes desperation.
Forgotten Things
September 18 · US · Martin Maenza
Lureela’s mist expands until the street dissolves into white silence.
Where Home Still Wounds — Chapter 1
September 20 · US · Mark Posey
The marriage passage rejects the grand occasions before settling on a newly opened flower.
The Summer Garden — Episode One: A Handful of Dirt
September 26 · US · Eris Index
The swallowed light and the “roiling mass of rust-colored forest floor.”
Firefly on the Tongue
September 7 · US · Chris / C. L. Swallow
The two-sentence exhausted self-portrait: eye-bag squatters, a corrected five-o’clock shadow, and the blunt final verdict.
The Grimoire of Tanzil — Chapter Two: Hidden Meanings
OOOF
Most emotional line or sequence
Choose the line or sequence whose tenderness, grief, recognition, relief, or other emotion landed most strongly.
6 nominees · unranked
September 1 · US · The Galactic Writer / Linda K. Castor
Ellie’s final act of care for Brenda despite the cost to her own continued existence.
The Last Companion
September 14 · US · Alexis Wright / Alexis Writes Fiction
The brother helps Netty become discoverable, then is discarded with the object that contains him.
Forgotten Things
September 20 · US · Mark Posey
The first tomato and the hospital rose repeat an intimate exchange across joy and loss.
The Summer Garden — Episode One: A Handful of Dirt
September 27 · US · Lisa N. Snöwe
Nook interrupts a suicidal crisis, becomes the reason for a promise, and receives a final goodbye.
Winter Sun
September 21 · EU/UK · Keenan Delaney
The daughter is found: “DADDY” changes the parent’s search from terror to relief.
The Route to Tessa — Interlude II: Jonas
September 6 · US · Chet Sandberg
The intimate dream is interrupted by recognition, leaving Marxus severed from the connection and recovering from its loss.
Marxus — Chapter 7: Parties
GASP
The reveal that changes what readers understand
Choose the reveal that most meaningfully changed your understanding of the story.
6 nominees · unranked
September 11 · US · Dr. Jinx, Medicine Woman
The treatment contains a speaking symbiote: “Me. They put me in you.”
Crash Diet
Read story ↗This page contains two stories. The nomination is for “Crash Diet,” the human-written entry.
September 5 · US · Liudmila Brus
Apparent rescue and medical care become captivity: Winston is a resource, and Katrina realizes she is trapped too.
To the Abyss and Back — Chapter 1: The Jewel Box
September 19 · US · Bekjon / Re1nGer
Daniel discovers that he himself filed Jane’s missing-person report.
The Soul We Never Had
September 23 · US · William R. Crichton
The message humanity considered an introduction reads to aliens as an unsolicited nude.
Unsolicited Nudes
September 29 · US · Logan Raith
The restaurant catastrophe becomes a reality-wide software update with compatibility deletions.
Day One Patch 1.0 — Prologue: It Happened in a Fast-Casual Tex-Mex Joint
September 24 · EU/UK · Anton Ihnen
Aart is not simply being disturbed by the specimen: his identity has been displaced, and the apparent continuing person is another wearer.
There’s Something Inside
WHOA
Coolest original idea
Choose the original idea or invention whose imaginative possibilities most impressed you in the reading.
6 nominees · unranked
September 11 · US · Dr. Jinx, Medicine Woman
A fat-eating, mind-hearing symbiote turns a coveted transformation into a negotiated cohabitation.
Crash Diet
Read story ↗This page contains two stories. The nomination is for “Crash Diet,” the human-written entry.
September 14 · US · Alexis Wright / Alexis Writes Fiction
A murdered boy remains conscious in a skin lampshade and uses its destruction to help expose his sister’s captivity.
Forgotten Things
September 23 · US · William R. Crichton
Alien non-contact results from humanity’s first greeting violating an interspecies social boundary.
Unsolicited Nudes
September 29 · US · Logan Raith
Reality treats modern civilization and altered bodies as incompatible software during a compulsory update.
Day One Patch 1.0 — Prologue: It Happened in a Fast-Casual Tex-Mex Joint
September 19 · EU/UK · David T. Etheredge
Paired heart/hurt tattoos let a child participate in a transfer of illness while the healer bears a share of the cost.
INK: Flash #2 — Chopsticks
September 23 · EU/UK · steffie
A preserved snakeskin becomes a growing predator, first traced through the freezer and security-camera footage.
Dark Specimen — V2, Chapters 1–2
ICON
Most compelling character
Choose the particular character you most want to follow, question, or keep thinking about.
6 nominees · unranked
September 10 · US · Josi Sofer
Ari — frightened, badly dressed, over-the-top and stubbornly loyal to his sister.
Running with the Pact — Chapter 8
September 4 · US · steffie / rubygs
Amelia — a nereid balancing her bodily instincts, mysterious obligations, band life and romantic preoccupations.
Terra and Tide Intro
September 12 · US · Jacob Seinemeier
Astrid — the tiny, pink-sneakered ex whose arrival reorganizes the entire scene.
Unhuman Resources — Part 2 of 3
September 17 · US · Kelley Tauffel / Fiction Shroom
Johnny — a distinctive husband, observer and camera-bearing presence readers want to follow through an ordinary day.
An Almost Perfect Day
September 28 · US · Carl Price
Marshall — the hardened investigator whose refusal to care collapses in front of an abused dog.
For Want of a Dog — A Blood Ties Yarn
September 21 · US · Amanda Talavera
Malakai — an imprisoned water-wielder caught between protective justification, satisfaction, guilt and the loss of his sensory connection to rain.
Collapse Beneath Black Waters — Chapter 1: The Omen
GOAT
Outstanding Reader & Critic · separately judged
The judges select this award for contributions to Write Club’s reading and critique community. It is separate from the 8 story categories on your ballot.
5 nominees · unranked
Jenifer Jorgenson
Offers specific, practical feedback on story clarity and the information a reader needs, helping writers turn problems into concrete revisions.
Eris Index
Connects close reading to character, emotion, and motivation, helping writers preserve distinctive choices while strengthening scenes.
Carl Price
Offers practical guidance on prose, sensory detail, and how a reader experiences a scene.
Lisa N. Snöwe
Explains how character relationships and recurring images shape a story’s emotional impact, with clear suggestions about what to keep or trim.
Josi Sofer
Provides developmental feedback on pacing, structure, scene clarity, and character payoff, with attention to each story’s rhythm.