We are running a $500 short story contest, and we are judging it blind

We built AIStoryHub on a stubborn idea: that you can write with AI and still sound like yourself. This August we are putting money behind it.

The AIStoryHub Short Story Contest runs August 1 to August 31, 2026. Write a short story of at least 10,000 words, use AIStoryHub somewhere in the drafting, and enter it straight from your story list. Three winners split $500 in Anthropic API credit. It is free, it is open worldwide, and there is nothing to buy.

Here is the part that matters. Every entry is stripped of names and read blind by a small panel of real people. No leaderboard of upvotes, no model scoring another model's output. Judges score on voice and craft, story and structure, originality, and whether the entry follows the rules. The writing wins, not the byline and not the tooling.

You do not need an API key. AIStoryHub ships with a free built-in model, so you can draft the whole thing without connecting a provider. You can bring a story you started months ago. You can write the first draft here and finish it in your own editor. "Use the platform" means use it for real, on some part of the work, not hand the whole book to a robot.

When your story crosses 10,000 words, an Enter contest button shows up on its card in your story list. One click, one confirmation, done. If you want, you can feature your entry in a public gallery so other writers can read it. That is optional, and it changes nothing about the blind judging.

Entries close August 31 at 11:59pm Eastern. The panel reads the first two weeks of September. Winners are named on September 15.

Make a free account, start your story, and write something you would put your name on.

Find out more at https://aistoryhub.co/contest-ai-writing-august-2026