🎉 Our next novel writing master class starts in –! Claim your spot →
Advice, insights and news
Free 10-day publishing courses
Free publishing webinars
Free EPUB & PDF typesetting tool
Launch your book in style
Assemble a team of pros
A weekly short story contest
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2019
“She’s very pretty, very small, very… much a baby. I didn’t realize how much a baby would be, you know, a baby. She can’t do anything. So tiny. I think both her hands make up, like, half my thumb.” “In her defense, you have abnormally large thumbs.” “Huh, that’s true. Do you want to hold her?” Danika shook her head and took a...
My, my, but Myreka doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into this time. Look at her, watch her, as she taps her feet along the pavement, one foot in front of the other like a merry schoolgirl, on her way to a class about baking or puppies or something otherwise pleasant. Ah, but Myreka is not on her way to learn about baby canines or pastries at all! She’s skipping, tapping, jolly-go-getting, straight down i...
my second face, my damn reflection We always meet when I'm defeated You tear me up all of the time My second face, don't wanna listen We always meet without permission Hey, skinny skinny Don't you think about the future Hey, skinny skinny Too bad (too bad) Hey, skinn...
Somedays, she really regretted the tail. It was shimmering and blue and honestly very magical, but it was also heavy, like the disappointed looks her parents gave her when they realized what she had done. To them, it seemed she had thrown away almost three whole years of a good, solid college education to go chase out her wildest dream, one she had had since she was a tiny girl, still wrapped up in her mermaid blanket a...
she’s putting up her clothes when her brother walks into the room, but he doesn’t say anything, just picks up a hanger from her bed and twists it around and around until it’s not a hanger, not a shape at all, anymore. she wants to ask if he’s okay but she knows the answer is a solid no and so she chomps down over her bottom lip and her top teeth stick out like they belong to a rabbit, or a hamster, or a very old...
The smell of homemade fried chicken and small, microwaved okra wafted in through Sandrita’s window. She sat behind her curtain and watched her neighbors run from their apartment to the car. They were helping their mom get the groceries, and even though Sandrita knew it was a small thing in their day, she wished she could help someone carry food into the kitchen. She wished she could put on her mother’s big high...
Courtney and I haven’t spoken in over three days, and you’d think after a while the pain of cutting off such a close friend would slow, but it actually grows sharper with every passing hour. I see things she left at my house; a sweatshirt that matches the one I bought with her in Florida last summer, two CD’s, a blanket she brought one time so she wouldn’t be cold… there’s a pair of her earrings on my dresser and seve...
You need me, Sport. “I don’t need you. You’re nothing.” You’re lying. You need me. You love me. I need you. I want you. Stay with me, Sport, and we’ll do such wonderful things. You’ve seen how much fun we’ve had, you know, before you decided you didn’t want to listen anymore. But you know what happens when I feel ignored, don’t you? Don’t you know? “Would you stop that? I said...
Candles lit Rosaire: Romain! Where are you? And cake is done Romain: I don’t know, I can’t see. Part’s over Rosaire: Just keep saying my name, I’ll find you. Now the fun is left to rot Romain: I think something fell, I’m not sure. The glass is shattered Rosaire: Are you okay? On the sofa R...
“I don’t care what she said, I care what she did to our family.” “She didn’t do anything to this family, Chuleta, that was you. You’re the one who tore it apart, rib by rib and slice by slice. You took up your fork and smashed it down flat against our skulls. What choice do you think we had? Answer me that, and then I’ll believe it’s her fault.” “I’ll kill her.” “You wouldn’t.” “Yes, I...
Goodbyes were never meant to be easy, but this one in particular is the worst one you’ve had yet. All morning long, you’ve been tapping your feet, dragging your hands, drinking too much milk and sipping it from your broken wine glasses because, after all, the rest of the dishes are sitting in a sticky pile by your sink. You can’t get up and get going but you know that if you don’t leave the house now, the heavy setting i...
Blood pearled in small, bright beads at the base of her lips, dotting the edges of her mouth and staining her teeth the light color of strawberry jam. There was caution tape wrapped around her wrists. The bold black words against the Big Bird yellow background made her dizzy, but it didn’t matter. She was already sitting down. The chair underneath her was made of brittle peanut butter candy, the kind that you would find at any old grandma’s cabinet store. But this was no quaint shop in the woods. This was not the place you’d bring your ch...
That’s the thing about this city. It gets inside your head, makes you think that for once in your life, you’re gonna do something great. It makes you think that every time you walk by a stranger on the street, that they could mean something to you, so every time you leave the house you dress up and you look nice and you run those streets as though you own them, and they don’t own you. In the city, you don’t think anything owns you till it’s too late, and you’re lying in your room and looking up at a ceiling that doubles as the fl...
“We have to stop them before they-” “Yes! I know we do. Would you stop pushing me? I know where we’re going.” “I can’t let you quit moving now, Lia.” She turned around and faced her partner, his face set in the moonlight and shining like the last Christmas ham at Kroger. There were smears of dirt and cheese ball dust, orange as the flickering fire in the torches they carried, caked under hi...
I drive to school with a stomach full of toast and eggs and a mind full of unanswered questions. My grandma has been secretive about a lot of things, including the accident that killed my mother and the real reason why I came to live with them and not my father, but when it comes to her and grandpa I thought it would be a pretty open book. I mean, they’re one of the town’s original couples. Most people know the story, es...
"I’ve been hoping someone will love you, let me go.”
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email: