Scroll No More Challenge Winners

For Scroll No More, we switched off every smartphone in the world and left the aftermath to you. The results gave us plenty to laugh about, worry about, and occasionally even feel hopeful about along the way.

Thanks again to Lightning Bolt ⚡ Bill for recommending this prompt!!

🏆 Grand Prize

A Requiem for a Reliquary by Kristen Keenon Fisher

Kristen Keenon Fisher takes smartphone dependence to an unsettling extreme, turning the memories of the dead into something the living need to survive. Even the prayers sound like something a phone company might sell. What starts as a nightmare about phone dependence grows into something a whole lot harder to shake.

🎖️ Winners

Stranded by Rachel Deeming

Rachel Deeming captures the awkwardness of offering help and not getting the response you hoped for. The phones stop working, but the trust needed to accept a stranger’s kindness doesn’t suddenly appear.

Adapting by Hannah Moore

Apparently even giving up smartphones needs a premium upgrade. Hannah Moore has a lot of fun with how easily a fresh start becomes an excuse to buy the next shiny thing.

Pastina and Petrol Money by Paul Stewart

The phones have gone quiet, but William’s family certainly hasn’t. Paul fills Nonna’s kitchen with unsolicited advice, endless pastina, and the kind of affection that won’t let you sulk in peace.

Dead Screen, Living Connection by Sasha Desideri

Sasha Desideri turns the panic of being stranded abroad into a warm story about finding welcome in an unfamiliar place.

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Chronically Offline by Raistlin Allen

• Analog XP by Tyler Clark

• The Order of the Screaming Goat by A. Bell

• Unfurling Havok by Angie the Archivist 📚🪶

• The Day Valentina Died by Sonia Heidi Unruh

• Reels by Cali Loria

• Smartfall: 25 Years Later by Aaron Morrison

• Rotary or Die! by Kendall Defoe

• Phoneless In Chicago by Paul A. Merkley

• We Don't Know the Way... by K.H. Obergfoll