Hysteria 11

Hysteria 11, published in November 2025, is the anthology of all winning stories, flash fiction and poetry from the 2025 Hysteria Writing Competition. This is the eleventh year of the Hysteria Writing Competition.

Each of the pieces in this year's anthology is a testament to the time taken to craft an image that implants an idea into the reader's head.

Every single one is different, and yet they all tell the same story, one that has an unbroken lineage over thousands of years, and that is the story of what it is to be human.

We can only ever 'write what we know'; yet it's impossible write what we don't, yet that piece of advice is often given as an admonishment to those who practice the craft as an attempt to keep them in a box labelled with their specific specialty or knowledge. These stories and poems demonstrate that the box cannot be closed forever, it cannot be tied shut and the ideas kept sealed, hidden. Instead, they flow freely through the minds and imaginations of everyone who contributes to this book.

I would like to offer my thanks to everyone who participated, just because you are not featured in these pages does not mean your entries were not worthy and I hope you will continue to write, to share your box of delights with readers and competitions alike.