🥁Drum roll, please! 🥁
Thank you so much to everyone who had time to nominate stories—this post literally can’t happen without you!
This year, we were incredibly lucky and honored to have several new FoLCs join the fandom, including some writers! WOO!
We had 113 eligible stories this year, and a total of 37 stories made the short list across 14 story-specific categories. You all nominated one third of the eligible stories! That’s amazing!
For those who were here last year or don’t care about the nitty gritty, feel free to scroll right on down to the Nominee Short Lists. For the rest of you, here is my very wordy explanation from last year about how the short lists are compiled so that you can fully follow along with the nomination process and see why some categories have different numbers of stories/people/art!
The Kerth Awards have long aimed to have 5 nominations per category (which is why we encourage voters to submit 5 nominations each)! But, as the K-Com is reminded every year, it’s never quite as simple as taking the top 5 stories/people/art, and calling that the short list.
Well, once in a wonderful while, it IS that easy—exactly 5 stories in a particular category will have a really strong showing of people nominating them, and the number of nominations creates a clear and easy cutoff that looks like this (*not real numbers):
Story A: 13 nominations
Story B: 10 nominations
Story C: 10 nominations
Story D: 8 nominations
Story E: 7 nominations
(And all other stories have 6 or fewer nominations, and therefore didn’t make the short list, which here is the top 5 that the model is built for.)
But sometimes the short list for a category looks like this (*also not real numbers):
Story A: 14 nominations
Story B: 13 nominations
Story C: 8 nominations
Story D: 8 nominations
Story E: 8 nominations
Story F: 8 nominations
Story G: 8 nominations
(And all other stories have 7 or fewer nominations and therefore didn’t make the short list.)
In this example, there’s no easy way to cap this category at 5 stories since there’s a 5-way tie for “third” spot on the list. And cutting it off at just 2 stories isn’t enough for the ballot. So then, this category would get the rare but sometimes necessary 7 slots for the short list.
Because of this, you’ll see that this year’s categories have a range of nominee tallies—4, 5, 6 or even 3 or a whopping 7!
We should also mention that we see categories where the short list of nominees is smaller, either because there were a lot of aligned nominators or because the list of eligible stories in that category just had a smaller number to start with.
At the end of this list, there’s more information on voting and the ceremony and more fun stuff, so don’t stop scrolling after the categories short lists below!
📣Without further ado, we are thrilled to present your chosen 2025 Kerth Nominees: 📣Best Micro-Short Story (1-5kB)A Chance Meeting in A Parking Lot by Queen of the Capes – 5 kB (805 words) –
StoryThe Cold Treehouse by SuperBek – 3 kB (490 words) –
StoryDessert by 90stvfangirl – 3 kB (512 words) –
StoryKrypto Meets A New Friend by Morgana – 5 kB (896 words) –
StoryThe Ring by Toomi8 – 5 kB (814 words) –
StoryThe Story I've Never Seen by Shallowford – 2 kB (244 words) –
StoryWalk The Dog Challenge 4: A Walk In The Park by bakasi – 3 kB (486 words) –
StoryBest Super-Short Story (6-10kB)IBM: All Fallen Down by JadedEvie – 9 kB (1,431 words) –
StoryAn Icy Reception by Queen of the Capes – 9 kB (1,484 words) –
StoryLove, Houdini by bakasi – 9 kB (1,572 words) –
StoryOut Of The Fire by Toomi8 – 9 kB (1,640 words) –
StoryBest Short Story (11-50kB)110 Kisses: You Made Your Choice (1/1—a standalone in collection of ficlets) by KSaraSara – 11 kB (2,130 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Culinary Mayhem for bakasi by Blueowl – 14 kB (2,443 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: No Small Thing for Blueowl by KSaraSara – 20 kB (3,469 words) –
StoryA Conversation Long Overdue by bakasi – 15 kB (2,752 words) –
StoryHere I Am by Toomi8 – 18 kB (3,300 words) –
StoryBest Mid-Length or Long Story (51-200kB or 201+kB)2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryAdvent Calendar for folcs by Kathryn84 – 83 kB (14,483 words) –
StoryFalling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryUndercover Reporter: Resurrection by JadedEvie – 213 kB (38,275 words) –
StoryBest Comedy Story2023 Ficathon: Culinary Mayhem for bakasi by Blueowl – 14 kB (2,443 words) –
StoryThe End by Queen of The Capes – 6 kB (917 words) –
StoryA Personal Favor by Queen of the Capes – 3 kB (447 words) –
StoryThe Story I've Never Seen by Shallowford – 2 kB (244 words) –
StoryTrue Hates Kiss by 90stvfangirl – 4 kB (721 words) –
StoryYou're not a wizard, Clark by 90stvfangirl – 6 kB (860 words) –
StoryBest Dramatic Story2023 Ficathon: Don’t Let Me See You Hurt for lovetvfan by bakasi – 44 kB (8,235 words) –
StoryBreaking Point by Kathryn84 – 100 kB (17,070 words) –
StoryIBM: All Fallen Down by JadedEvie – 9 kB (1,431 words) –
StoryUndercover Reporter: Resurrection by JadedEvie – 213 kB (38,275 words) –
StoryBest Waffy Story110 Kisses: You Made Your Choice (1/1—a standalone in collection of ficlets) by KSaraSara – 11 kB (2,130 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Christmas Lights for KSaraSara by JadedEvie – 102 kB (18,128 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryFalling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryBest Revelation2023 Ficathon: Christmas Lights for KSaraSara by JadedEvie – 102 kB (18,128 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Culinary Mayhem for bakasi by Blueowl – 14 kB (2,443 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Dancing With Superman for BlindPassenger by Toomi8 – 22 kB (4,030 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryThe Cold Truth by Queen of the Capes – 36 kB (6,233 words) –
StoryA Friend In Need by bakasi – 19 kB (3,593 words) –
StoryBest Episode Adaptation (rewrite/fix-it/in-betweenie)110 Kisses: You Made Your Choice (1/1—a standalone in collection of ficlets) by KSaraSara – 11 kB (2,130 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: No Small Thing for Blueowl by KSaraSara – 20 kB (3,469 words) –
StoryFade to Black: Never on Sunday But Maybe Just For Tonight by lovetvfan – 57 kB (10,600 words) –
Story (nFanfic)A Friend In Need by bakasi – 19 kB (3,593 words) –
StorySmart Kids Revisited by AmandaK – 41 kB (7,390 words) –
StoryUndercover Reporter: Resurrection by JadedEvie – 213 kB (38,275 words) –
StoryBest Elseworlds/AU StoryDistrict K: Injustice by AmandaK – 19 kB (3,409 words) –
StoryFalling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryLois and The Spaceship by 90stvfangirl – 6 kB (995 words) –
StoryBest Kiss110 Kisses: You Made Your Choice (1/1—a standalone in collection of ficlets) by KSaraSara – 11 kB (2,130 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Christmas Lights for KSaraSara by JadedEvie – 102 kB (18,128 words) –
StoryFalling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryFirst Kiss by AmandaK – 7 kB (1,133 words) –
StoryBest Original Character/Supporting CharacterSteward & Gemma: 2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryMartha: Falling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryHoudini: Love, Houdini by bakasi – 9 kB (1,572 words) –
StoryJimmy Olsen: A True Friend by Kathryn84 – 6 kB (1,009 words) –
StoryBest Challenge Response2023 Ficathon: Christmas Lights for KSaraSara by JadedEvie – 102 kB (18,128 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Culinary Mayhem for bakasi by Blueowl – 14 kB (2,443 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: No Small Thing for Blueowl by KSaraSara – 20 kB (3,469 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryOut Of The Fire by Toomi8 – 9 kB (1,640 words) –
StoryBest New AuthorAmandaKAuroreCalliopeWaynedrdeathdefyingBest Overall Story2023 Ficathon: Christmas Lights for KSaraSara by JadedEvie – 102 kB (18,128 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Don’t Let Me See You Hurt for lovetvfan by bakasi – 44 kB (8,235 words) –
Story2023 Ficathon: Planes, Trains and Deep Fried Mars Bars for Queen of the Capes by lovetvfan – 97 kB (18,241 words) –
StoryFalling For a Farm Boy by Female Hawk – 354 kB (64,184 words) –
StoryUndercover Reporter: Resurrection by JadedEvie – 213 kB (38,275 words) –
StoryBest Commenter/Feedback GiverBakasiDarth MichaelJadedEvieMorganaBest Original FanartMusic Video: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston by Aurore –
FanartGraphics: 2024 Kerth Banners by Carrie Rene –
FanartMusic Video: Elevator Shenannigans, a compilation to Stricken by No Doubt by Krista –
FanartMusic Video: Dream Worth Keeping by Sheena Easton (from the Fern Gully soundtrack) by lovetvfan –
FanartVoting will open THIS COMING SUNDAY, April 6th 0:00 UTC and close two weeks after on Sunday, April 20th 23:59 UTC—there will be a separate post on that when voting opens!
The way we have things set up and automated (YAY MICHAEL FOR AUTOMATING), only Annette and our neutral third-party verifier will see the votes. TriciaW, who was Kerth Coordinator for many years, will return to be our neutral third-party verifier and is delighted to be helping out again this year!
In years past, there has been a rule of sorts that no story shall be allowed to have more than a certain number of spots on the ballot. K-Com discussed for a long time a few years ago and decided not to resurrect this rule. But given the phenomenal (and unexpected by the K-Com) sweep by What the Heart Wants two years ago, we’ve decided that it’s warranted to bring back this rule and revamp it a bit—with the important distinction that we’ve decided to limit SOLE wins to three awards (not including Best Overall) rather than ballot slots so that FoLCs will feel their nominations were heard, and the authors/creators get their due accolades of the nomination—anything more than three will be converted to a tie with the runner up.
All winners will be announced at the Kerth Ceremony.
And speaking of the ceremony! Just like last year, we’ll post a poll for you to vote on the most convenient time frame in and around Saturday, April 26th for the ceremony. Stay tuned!
Keep your eyes on this forum for more information about ceremony information (when, where, and how you can join in!), an official announcement post when the voting officially starts, and another call for volunteer presenters from Evie!
And, lastly, upholding tradition, we also humbly offer you a box of pins, a la LabRat.
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Have a question? Ask it here! Or you can PM any of the K-Com members or reach out on Discord too! You can also send an email to us here: Kcom@kerthawards.com
In order to help you find all things Kerth for this year, we’ve created a TOC for all the
🏆TOC for Kerth Awards 2025 Posts🏆.
The Kerth Committee
(KSaraSara, Michael, lovetvfan, and Evie)
Michael