Your Voice Matters in “Your Story” Contest
Readers Invited to Help Choose the Winner in “Your Story,” an Audiobook Contest that Celebrates the Story Behind the Story
Readers everywhere are invited to help choose the winner in “Your Story,” an audiobook storytelling contest created through a collaboration between Spoken and Author Nation that spotlights twelve exceptional independent authors and the personal stories behind their work. Through April 14, 2026, readers will play a pivotal role in selecting the Grand Prize Winner by streaming the finalists’ stories and submitting their scores online. (Listening is free.)
How Readers Can Participate
Readers can visit the “Your Story” landing page through April 14, 2026 to stream the finalists’ entries (most of which are under an hour) and submit their scores in the online form.
A Chance to Win VIP Access to Reader Nation 2026
Readers who participate by listening and submitting their scores will automatically be entered for a chance to win two VIP tickets to Reader Nation 2026 in Las Vegas this November. In addition to the opportunity to win, every listener’s participation directly supports independent authors by helping elevate new voices and bring attention to powerful stories that might otherwise go unheard.
The Finalists
The twelve finalists represent a remarkable range of voices and storytelling styles.
Dana Birkmour, author of The Becoming of Cernunnos, draws on ancient mythic traditions to explore transformation, divinity, and the cost of power. Her work reflects a deep belief that myth and storytelling are meant to be experienced through voice as much as through text, bringing ancient narrative traditions into modern listening formats.
Sonceree Best presents The Artist’s Duel, in which two painters compete to capture the essence of the same woman. Best explores the boundary between inspiration and possession – and the resolve required to define oneself beyond imposed narratives. Beneath the rivalry lies a deeper exploration of identity, self-definition, and claiming one’s own voice.
Steve Higgs, puts his mystery/thriller storytelling experience to good work in Never to Be Solved, which follows a detective on the last day of his career as he reflects on a thirty-year-old murder case he failed to solve. Higgs, a former British Army officer, invites readers to piece together clues and unravel a mystery that has lingered unresolved for decades.
Julia Huni contributes The Krimson Empire, a sweeping science fiction saga set across an interstellar stage of political intrigue, power struggles, and survival among rival factions in a distant empire. Huni drew upon her own experience as a military officer and the memory of what might have been.
Philip Keys offers The Accidental Teacher, a deeply personal memoir reflecting on a childhood shaped by a hidden cleft palate and the lifelong desire to be understood. His journey ultimately led him to become a teacher of teachers, transforming personal struggle into a career devoted to communication and connection.
Antoinette Klimek, author of Mother Tongue, explores language, identity, and generational connection in a story that began as a therapeutic exercise in grief and evolved into a tribute honoring love and longing for her cultural roots and a shared connection to her Vietnamese heritage.
Natalie McMillan presents The Minister and the Madness, a spiritually centered narrative that examines faith, doubt, and redemption while exploring the internal conflicts that arise when belief is tested. McMillan delivers a compelling exploration of spiritual surrender and the liberating power of faith in confronting life's challenges.
G.E. Perlin contributes Silent: The Listeners, a haunting narrative that begins as a playful ghost hunt and turns into a nightmarish clash with a dark force. As time fractures and memory bends, Perlin’s characters face questions of truth, love, and the terrifying power of forgetting.
AM Scott offers Do Retired Hellhounds Dream of Slower Squirrels, a story told from a canine’s perspective that blends humor with reflection as it explores aging, purpose, and the search for meaning after life’s most demanding roles begin to fade. Scott wrote this piece as part of a fundraiser to help an elderly woman remain in the only home she ever knew.
Morgan Sterling, author of What Remains Unreturned, presents a futuristic narrative examining loss, belonging, and cultural identity in a world where advanced technology cannot resolve the deepest human fractures. In this story, Sterling uncovers the isolation of clarity and what happens when the witness is not a savior.
Adam Strassberg brings PrayGPT, a provocative story that explores the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence, asking what might happen when powerful new technologies begin performing rituals once considered uniquely human. Strassberg’s own embrace of technology is translated through his characters’ curious exploration of what could be possible.
Gabriel Stroup presents Theodore Langley, a richly textured work of historical fiction that immerses readers in the moral complexities and social tensions of another era when a time traveler tries to rewrite history’s tragedies. Stroup’s thought experiment with this series explores the persistence of human nature and the ways in which knowledge endures.
Together, these finalists demonstrate the extraordinary diversity of contemporary independent storytelling, showcasing works that are imaginative, deeply personal, and reflective of the authors who created them.
Listen, Score, and Support Indie Storytelling
With just a short listening session, readers can discover remarkable new voices while helping shape the outcome of the competition.
Honorable mentions include the following authors and their works:
Bob Bello – Breath of Life
Kat Caldwell – Whistling Motherhood
Macaulay Christian – Children of Eternity
Nicole Frens — Flight to Tomorrow
D.B. Goodin – Out of Tune
Annette Grantham — Threads of the Heart
Deborah Gray –– Bravata Brat
James Robert Harper — No Mercy
Keith Hayden — Cereus & Limnic
Vee James –– Willam Rand’s Tale
Jason Kristopher — The Gurt Dug of New Bannockburn
D.M. Krulicki — Rift Rangers
Jennifer Lamont Leo — The House on Cherry Street
K. S. Lynn — A Thousand More
Theresa McEvoy — Where the World Remembers Her
Roger Mendoza — Loaded for Revenge
Blaine Moore — Charlie Needs Milk
Crystal Morgan – The Entitled Kid
Cassie O'Neal — Melt Into You
A.J. Reed — The Narrator's Story
Douglas Sjoquist — Through the Gap
Jeffrey Zyjeski — The Eigenstate Cascade
