Hello, FoLCs! wave

Welcome to the official opening of the 2026 Kerth Award Season!

We’ve been working diligently behind the scenes to make sure the eligible stories list is accurate (and you can take a look at that here)! Next up, we’ll be on the hunt for some volunteers for both presenting during the awards ceremony and helping out with activities and such in the lead up to the ceremony. But in the meantime, we’re excited to announce the categories, activities and the schedule for this year’s Kerth Awards.

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2026 Schedule:

Activities: These will start shortly and will end on March 29th (just before the voting begins). This year will include writing challenges and quizzes and possibly one more favorite activity, too!

Nomination period: From March 8th to March 22nd, we’ll have a nominations form up for everyone to submit their favorite stories that fit into each category!

Post Nominee Shortlist: March 31st

Voting period: From April 5th to April 19th, the official ballot for final votes will be open.

Ceremony: Saturday, April 25th, at a time yet to be determined (but, as always, we’ll set up a poll and do our best to accommodate the majority of FoLCs across the world).

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2026 Category List:

Best Micro-Short Story (1-5kB)
Best Super-Short Story (5-10kB)
Best Short Story (11-50kB)
Best Mid-Length Story (51-200kB)
Best Long Story (201+kB)
Best Comedy Story
Best Dramatic Story
Best Waffy Story
Best Revelation
Best Episode Adaptation (rewrite/fix-it/in-betweenie)
Best Elseworlds/AU Story
Best Kiss
Best Original Character/Supporting Character
Best Challenge Response
Best NFic Story
Best New Author
Best Overall Story
Best Commenter/Feedback Giver
Best Original Fanart


2026 Category Descriptions:

Best Micro-Short Story (1-5kB)
These are stories that are up to approximately 900 words.

Best Super-Short Story (6-10kB)
These are stories that are approximately 900 to 1,800 words.

Best Short Story (11-50kB)
These are stories that are approximately 1,800 to 9,000 words.

Best Mid-Length Story (51-200kB)
These are stories that are approximately 9,000 to 36,000 words.

Best Long Story (201+kB)
These are stories that are longer than approximately 36,000 words.

Note: These length categories will be officially counted by kB. But since we know that a lot of people have a better understanding of word count these days, we’ve provided the approximate range for each category. All the stories that fit into the categories above are predetermined by their size, but all of the stories that go into most of the categories below are up to your nominations, dear readers! So start aligning which of your favorite stories are the best fits for each category!

Best Comedy Story
These are the stories that made you laugh out loud this year. Whether they’re full of puns or totally absurd or just a series of hilariously unfortunate events, the purpose of these stories is to amuse the reader and make them laugh.

Best Dramatic Story
Dramatic stories keep us on the edge of our seats. They’re filled with exciting and suspenseful events and can be similar in tone to the show's episodes or tackle a more serious subject matter. They will generally, though not always, contain a significant A-plot.

Best Waffy Story
A comforting hand on the lower back. Chocolate-brown eyes staring deeply into your soul. A perfect flight at twilight. Ah, those Warm and Fuzzy Feelings. These fun, feel-good stories are full of the cozy, happy, fluffy moments that make us smile and the romantic moments that make us swoon and kick our feet.

Best Revelation
Clark Kent is…Superman?! No matter how many revelations we read, the readers always want more unmaskings (un-glasses-ings?). This fan-favorite category honors the best of them – whether that means a revelation that is shocking, hilarious, or tear-jerking. Although Lois is most often the one to discover Clark’s secret, any fic that reveals Clark’s secret to any character is eligible in this category.

Best Episode Adaptation (rewrite/fix-it/in-betweenie)
Episode Adaptations alter the events of, or start from a specific point in, a particular episode. This includes full episode rewrites, alternate endings, and in-betweenies that fill in the little moments we didn’t see on screen.

Best Elseworlds/AU Story
Alternate Universe and Elseworlds stories tell the tale of Lois and/or Clark in a world other than the one we saw on television. This includes stories about the Alt-Clark and his Lois that we met on the show and new versions of our favorite characters wholly created and imagined by the author. This category includes stories set pre-Pilot, stories set outside of Metropolis, stories set outside of the years the show ran on television, and stories where major changes have been made to the backstory/nature of the characters. This category also includes Crossover stories.

Best Kiss
“Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.” Which kiss left them all behind this year? Keep in mind, this category isn’t about best romance, per say, but specifically the best, swooniest, most toe-curling or most meaningful kiss that you just couldn’t forget!

Best Original Character/Supporting Character
The show may be called Lois and Clark, but sometimes another character really steals the show. This award honors characters other than Lois or Clark whom an author has taken extra care to make shine. This includes any of the original supporting cast – good or evil – as well as new original or crossover characters. Characters are eligible whether they are the star of their own story or a supporting character in Lois and Clark’s story who captures the audience’s heart.

Best Challenge Response
This award honors the extra creativity required to craft a quality story around a certain set of parameters. Here, the challenge of the challenge is how it acts as the integral lynchpin of the story, not just a footnote, within the responding fic. A creative twist can turn a little challenge into a fic with mega impact! This includes all stories written in response to challenges and ficathons posted on the Lois and Clark Fanfic Message Board (any challenge regardless of the year it was posted; but only story responses that were posted in 2025 are eligible). This also includes Discord dares and specific request fulfillments, and this year, our beloved Summer Ficathon.

Best NFic Story
Was it steamy? Sensual? Spicy? Romantic? Hot? Sweet? Blush-worthy? Sexy? All of the above? If you had to vote for a story based on just the nfic content alone, which one do you think is the best? Eligible stories are based on their being published in the nfic section or with adult-content maturity or explicit rating on AO3.

Best New Author
Each year we send some love to our newest authors to join the fandom, and this category honors one in particular. They may have written just one or might have managed more than a dozen! No matter how much fic they give us, we’re always grateful for new authors, especially after 30 years!

Best Overall Story
The best of the best. Your very favorite. The one story you would recommend first to a new reader. The story you come back to again and again. All stories posted this year are eligible for this award.

Best Commenter/Feedback Giver
Public feedback is the lifeblood of this community. Whether it’s the brief but unfailing encouragement of our most faithful readers or the gushing comments with detailed feedback or the hilariously absurd predictions and suggestions about where the story is headed…feedback threads are every bit as entertaining to read as the stories. This award honors the FOLCs who take time out of their busy days to leave feedback for authors. Without them, there would be no stories – they keep the writers writing and the readers reading.

Best Original Fanart
This newer category honors the artists among us who make creative content derived from the show. Any original piece of fanart – banners, posters, trailers, music videos, videos, podcasts, etc. – shared publicly for the first time in 2025 or by an artist that joined our community in 2025is eligible.

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As you all know, the K-Com reviews the categories list every year to ensure it best fits the body of work that our authors have submitted in a given year. Sometimes, like last year, there are so many short stories that we need to add the Micro-Short category! You’ll notice that the Micro-Short category remains (because we had just enough entries to be able to make one more award!), and that we’ve been able to add back the Best NFic and Best Author categories. Remember that we skipped NFic last year, to ensure that the category remained competitive. So last year’s NFic stories will be added to this year’s eligible list (only for this category).


Stay tuned for our list of eligible fanart, a call to volunteer and an invitation to join in on the activities to get us all pumped (and read up!) for the award season! clap

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Have a question about the Kerths? 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 2026 Posts🏆.

The Kerth Committee
(KSaraSara, Darth Michael, lovetvfan, and JadedEvie)

Looking forward to this summer's Location Challenge! Looks like stories are due around August 1st, and then polls open for voting!

And don't forget about the 2026 fundraiser! Head over to the Fundraising page to donate or consider adding a story to the Keepsake Collection fundraising drive!