Write a story in which a jaded academic makes an unexpected, rash decision.

Posted in Angst on Nov 3, 2023

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✍️ 41 stories

“It's Not All Its Cracked Up to Be.” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #223

I hadn’t written a word for at least twenty minutes. My brain was heavy with a fog of nothing. It had shut down in the area of thinking and writing and I couldn’t have cared less. I looked around the room to the serious faces, concentrating, wanting to get a great mark. They had probably swotted every night for weeks and the brains of these people were sending vital information to the hand that held the pen. One guy was chewing the end of his pen furiously, as if he hadn’t eaten in a week. Then he started to cough as the tiny bits of plastic...

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“The Phoenix Tea” by Kimberly Gold

Submitted to Contest #223

The sound of rain hitting the tent perfectly mirrored the mood of a dejected-looking woman sitting inside it. It vibrated on the tent’s plastic material, mixing with the chatter and glass clinking of the other customers. The woman, whose name was Holly, gazed through the transparent plastic squares onto the flooded Busan street and imagined her own ambitions flowing away down the river of rainwater.A table full of men erupted in a roar of boisterous laughter, but it was the vibration of her phone that forced her out of her trance moment...

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“Bar Flies and Zombie Fungus” by River Lethe

Submitted to Contest #223

Bar Flies and Zombie Fungus By River Lethe This is the story of the time I blew off my lit final and went day drinking with a homeless guy. All this shit actually happened. When me and Vince walk into the Bayhorse Tavern at 11 am, there’s a dumpy blond behind the bar leaning over a pile of cocaine teaching a Chihuahua to dance. She’s wearing a leopard print kimono, and her areolas are peeking over the horizons of her bra like little pink sunrises saying good morning to everyone. “Up! Chimmy. Up!” She says in a shrill voice, hol...

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“Winston & Libby” by Evin Maher

Submitted to Contest #223

Winston & Libby Trigger Warning. The following is a black comedy that features profanity. It also involves substance abuse, mental health issues, suicidal thoughts and violence. I gaze out the window. Another bleak day, rainy and grey. I've been correcting papers since 7 am. I eye the name at the top of each paper. That moron. She’s lazy. He’s obese. Fucking beatnik. Who? And so forth. Then I wade through them, one by one. Relentless monotony. Usually, after minutes have crawled by, it occurs to me that I have no idea what I've just ...

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“Hello and Goodbye” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #223

The packing tape squealed as Professor Augie Sorenson ran the roll over the flaps of the last box containing the odds and ends from his office. His promising career in materials science was teetering on the edge. A man’s voice outside the door said, “Found it, thank you.” A stern-looking young man entered, displeasure writ large across his face, the look quickly wiped away and replaced with a toothy smile. Augie used this tactic himself: the dissatisfaction made one appear discerning, and the smile charmed the viewer into thinking a bond wa...

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“Grainy Boundaries” by Danny Bubb

Submitted to Contest #223

“Shit, Cinemar is here already here, making the rounds before the plenary,” Emilie sighed into the phone heavily. “Yeah, I gotta go. Yes. Muah. No… I just don’t want to be spotted.” “Shit…” she exhaled after she was, in fact, spotted. This was not the time for what she was sure was to be a harangue from her senior colleague. She smiled and fake-waved at Janice Cinemar who beamed over at her over the top of the crowd. Tall and striking, she overtopped Emilie by at least 4" and she wore dress boots with 4” heels. Hel...

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“When Darkness Turns to Light” by Henry Labelle

Submitted to Contest #223

Professor Jackson rose from a deep slumber. His eyes were heavy with sleep, and he began to rub them with the knuckles of his index fingers as he assessed his whereabouts. He noticed an empty whisky bottle next to the mattress which laid on the floor. He looked around, breathing deeply and brushing his fingers through his thick hair. His elbow brushed warm skin, and he suddenly recalled the previous night. Rosalie lay there, in a deep sleep of her own, a deep sleeper by nature, and even more so after a night such as they’d had. He brushed th...

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“RiffRaff” by Jeff Stone

Submitted to Contest #223

RiffRaff It all started with a verifiable threat. Squad cars and a SWAT team fanned out across the campus of Eastern High School on a rain-soaked afternoon. They were looking for and quickly found Granby Parcell, who pissed his pants in the C-Wing when an officer aimed a long gun at him and told him to “lay on the ground, NOW!” I was working in the auditorium that afternoon and moved quickly to lock all twelve entrances into it as the school alarm filled every square inch of my skull. Whatever was going on, unless it were a bomb, it would...

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“Diary of a Clowning Student” by Caitlin Beitel

Submitted to Contest #223

Entry #43 It is not ideal to type with a severely bandaged pontier- ughh, pointre- POINTER finger. Especially when they’ve decided to have us all use typewriters this semester. Ya know, for the experience. To build character. I think it’s a waste of time and paper and the “experience” is lost on most of these bozos. It’s our last year at Clown Academy after all, what’re they expecting? No one here is ever going to measure up to Boop De Boise, no matter how much patience and discipline it takes to type-write a ten page paper o...

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“REGAI” by AB Casadella

Submitted to Contest #223

My knees shook as I slithered between lecture hall seats and down toward the podium after class. I needed Professor Gott to say yes to my proposal. No other faculty member had, so far. Whatever had possessed me to take my mathematician brother’s bet? And yet, I was so close to winning it. I had not expected to ever succeed at double majoring in literature and computer science. One field relied on single, precise meanings attached to words; in the other, words were chosen precisely to evoke multitudinous meanings. My brain wasn’t properly wir...

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“The peel-back” by Mike Rancourt

Submitted to Contest #223

Rot—technically Greg Rot, or technically Greg Hargrove, but legally just “Rot” since 2001, known in the nineties as “Human Rot” to some. Forty-seven, skeletal, sunken cheeks, spiky graying hair, neck tattoos, sleeves, black Crass logo T-shirt (without the band name), tight black jeans. “Have a good weekend, Professor Rot.” “You, too Lindsey.” It seemed like all his students were soccer players for some reason, and cheery. Most of the quarter, he’d do his duty and lecture them on the sacred importance of thesis statements, topic sentences, an...

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Write a story in which a jaded academic makes an unexpected, rash decision.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 41 stories

“It's Not All Its Cracked Up to Be.” by Valerie Preston

“The Phoenix Tea” by Kimberly Gold

“Bar Flies and Zombie Fungus” by River Lethe

“Winston & Libby” by Evin Maher

“Hello and Goodbye” by VJ Hamilton

“Grainy Boundaries” by Danny Bubb

“When Darkness Turns to Light” by Henry Labelle

“RiffRaff” by Jeff Stone

“Diary of a Clowning Student” by Caitlin Beitel

“REGAI” by AB Casadella

“The peel-back” by Mike Rancourt

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a student discovering a hidden room in a university library.

Write about two rival academics pursuing the same grant.

Write about a student reporter uncovering a university scandal.

Set your story during exam season, when tensions run high and a minor incident sends your protagonist into a panic spiral.

Contest #223

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

184

Contest entries

84

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: