There is a far-flung corner of the Universe where ‘Quantum Shorts’ are the very latest in haute couture — and to be fair some of the designs are very fetching, even if they really only suit species indigenous to a handful of moons many light years from Earth (you can sometimes get the garments on intergalactic mail order — but to carry the look off, it tends to help if you have more than five legs).

For the rest of us, the phrase Quantum Shorts means it is time for the annual competition run by the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore. Launched in 2012, the competition seeks science-fiction inspiration in the quantum world. This year, it wants you to write a piece of flash fiction — no more than 1,000 words long — that in some way features something quantum. Up for grabs is a first prize of US$1,500 as well as a year’s subscription to the digital edition of Scientific American. The rules are simple: write a 1,000-word story and submit it via the Quantum Shorts website by 11.59 EST on 1 December 2015.

Nature Futures is delighted to be one of the judges this year and — assuming the temporal literature-transfer unit doesn’t blow another fuse — is eagerly looking forward to reading the entries in December.

There’s a host of useful links on the Quantum Shorts website to help inspire you. Here, Brian Crawford, who won the Quantum Shorts contest in 2013 with his story The Knight of Infinity, offers some insight into the competition.