The Cupid Prize '26 News
Greeting, lovers of love…. Hope everyone had a great weekend… !
Well, today I'm here to talk about The Cupid Prize. Some of you may remember last year and the inaugural Cupid Prize for Excellence in Love Lit. Well, we ran into a few issues last year - you live, you learn, right? The main problem was the attempt to extend outside of Micromance, allowing other editors to nominate stories - no one did. So, I opened it up to writers doing self nominations and ran into a couple of “publication rights” issues. So it was back to the drawing board.
For those who don't know, I created The Cupid Prize as a literary genre award celebrating flash romance and women's fiction (and romantic poetry). The idea was to uplift the genre of flash romance, highlighting the best of the best, so to speak.
It's something I still strive to do. And so The Cupid Prize has undergone some changes.
The main change is it will be, as first intended, an internal prize anthology for work published in Micromance only.
It will have 4 categories:
Flash Romance, which includes pieces from the Quickies and Short & Sweet Categories…
Micro Romance, which includes Sweet Nothings…
Poetry
And Editors Choice - in this category, the editor(s) will choose their overall favorite pieces (24 in total)….
How are pieces nominated?
Nominations are determined by Substack engagement stats, so, technically, nominees are determined by the readers. There will be 12 nominees per category - the top performer of each month.
All 12 from each category (72 pieces all together) will be included in the prize anthology as examples of the best “Love Lit”… and all of these writers will receive digital certificates to add to author websites or however they wish to use them….
Grand Prize Winners…
Guest judges - one for each category - will read through all finalists and select their favorite…. These grand prize winners (4 in total) will be featured in the anthology with an author interview/spotlight and be the official Cupid Prize Winners and, along with the digital certificate, will receive a digital “medal” as well…
So how do I get nominated?
Submit to Micromance Magazine - the prize is only open to those published by Micromance, and you can't get published if you don't submit…
If your piece is accepted for publication, when the time comes, be sure to spread the word - share the post on social media, in your writing groups, among family & friends…
Write evocative and/or relatable stories and poetry that touch readers…more than the people you know, it's the Micromance community that engages in liking, commenting and restacking posts… the more you connect with them emotionally (make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something), the higher you'll rise in the top posts list… and the more you make the editors feel something, the better your chances for being an editors choice nominee…
And no, this isn't just a popularity contest..
From what I can tell so far, the “finalists” will be quite diverse, from genre romance flash fiction to literary love stories…from regular contributors to one-time submitters…from romance authors to writers rooted in other genres… and the poetry is just as wide of an array of talent…
Everyone has the same chance!
As we get through summer, more details will become known, such as who the prestigious guest judges will be… ! So stay tuned…
For those who were nominees and winners of the ‘25 Cupid Prize… I have not forgotten you or the Anthology… it is still forthcoming with more details coming soon!
Sharing the Love Recognition Award
Not only do we recognize outstanding writers with The Cupid Prize, we also recognize our most engaging readers with a recognition award… the top 10 restackers, commenters, and supporters of the Micromance community will be recognized…they will receive a digital certificate and be listed in the prize anthology…
So stay tuned everyone…. Finalists will be announced in January. The Grand Prize winners will be announced on February 14th, 2026…. Guest judges will be announced this fall… it's going to be exciting!! 😁
Along with some of the other updates to the Substack, there will be a tab for the Cupid Prize that includes all pertinent information…
Thanks for all of your support and if there are any questions about Micromance, KissMet Quarterly or The Cupid Prize, don't hesitate to ask….
micromancemagazine@gmail.com
Gail Lynn, EIC 🥰
What a lovely idea!
Exciting news!! 🥰