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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#102: To Kill a Mockingbird

This Sunday (July 11th) marks sixty-one years since To Kill A Mockingbird was first published. For over six decades now, Harper Lee’s groundbreaking Great American Novel has been taught in schools, stocked by the dozens in bookstores, and devoured by adults and children alike. And despite its age, many of its themes remain deeply relevant today: the damage done by judgment and discrimination, the loss of innocence as one grows up, and the vital importance of standing up for what’s right — even when everyone else is against you.

To commemorate this classic, this week’s prompts are inspired by its characters, plot devices, and most enduring lessons. Whether To Kill a Mockingbird is a distant English-class memory or your favorite book of all time, these prompts are sure to spark a few story ideas — one of which may even lead to your own literary masterpiece.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a metaphor about human nature.

Fiction – 109 stories

Frame your story as an adult recalling the events of their childhood.

Adults – 243 stories

Write about a character with an unassailable moral compass.

Character – 34 stories

Write a story about someone losing faith in an institution.

Angst – 119 stories

Write about a mysterious figure in one’s neighborhood.

Horror – 205 stories

Stories

“Broken Nose” by Mike Garrigan

Submitted to Contest #102

Through his shoes and into his knees, Jamie felt his skateboard vibrate as he slid across the top of a park bench in Greenhill Park. Upon landing, he turned against the grain of the asphalt, powersliding to a stop. “Yes!” he said. He removed his helmet, swooped his hair out of his face, and smiled. Jamie had been trying to land a railslide all summer without totally wrecking himself. Jamie looked ahead, just beyond the park, to Mr. Winwood’s house. In a neighborhood bridled by yellow and tan homes, Mr. Winwood’s dark mahogany haunt...

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“Simple People” by Markeisha B

Submitted to Contest #102

My big brother, Adam, and I walked through the middle of the barren road toward the esteemed--by us-- “Pecan Forest, a few blocks from our home. “Do you think Joe will let us play outside later this evening?” I asked Adam in hopes that he’ll say yes.“Maggie, you know how he is.”I did know how our father was, all business and disapproving of anyone unlike him. Joe--our father is an up-and-coming journalist for our town’s newspaper; we call him Joe because he wants to only be seen as a serious businessman.“Maybe Big Bob can convince him,”...

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“No Longer Friends, and Friendships Brand New” by Rachel <3

Submitted to Contest #102

The house is glossy midnight blue, fresh-painted, and perfectly framed through my speckled bedroom window. I'm mildly surprised by the sudden curb appeal that the house has gained from its new paint job. The place hasn't looked so clean and new in the six years my family's lived across the street from it, and I always thought of it as a lost cause. If every street has a slightly haunted, probably abandoned old wreck of a house, this one was ours, but it's really cleaned up. "Watcha think?" Khloe holds out a hand for my inspection. I glan...

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“Detachment” by Apoorwa Bajpai

Submitted to Contest #102

The rain dripping, wind changes its direction, its course changes, but that same wind cannot change the sunlight direction's no matter how hard it tries. A detached human nature cannot be deflected from its course no matter how much of temptations wind flows around it. Human nature is like different flowers in a garden, having similarities still a lot different from one another, having different fragrances, different sized petals, different addictions for there growth, different nutrition need, still they all have petals, leaves, sepals, sta...

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“Greece” by Amelia Namita

Submitted to Contest #102

There has always been something magnetic about our nature - pulled to and from each other each year. We could be six or sixteen and I'd find you; sometimes negatively charged, but positive I'd raise your spirits. We played kickball every lunch - the red rubber ball crashing into the wire fence; shaking the players that waited anxiously on the other side, fingers intertwined with the chicken wire. I’d quietly shift from my place at the front of the line, summoning the confidence to try once again at a game I didn’t know how to win, but...

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“Sam rises like a Phoenix” by Sarah Desouza

Submitted to Contest #102

To rise like a phoenix from the ashes can often be a difficult thing.It is often human nature to think that resilience is not possible. Sam did in fact rise from the ashes like a phoenix, when he took on some new challenges. This is his story.Sam always did had a great sense of adventure. He was an energetic man who loved riding horses. He also had a great career that gave him enough time to spend on all of his hobbies. He was a wealthy man. He had risen to great heights in his professional life. He started small, and found his way up the co...

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“Dog Fight” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #102

Pedigree rattled in the green plastic dish as I filled it to overflowing, enough to feed three dogs. Trixie, my yellow lab, rushed out on the back porch, burying her face in the bowl. She growled when the cocker spaniel mongrel padded out, refusing to share. Outside the dirty sliding door, Robin barked, baring her teeth. They jumped on each other, a hairy snarling ball, banging into the glass, rolling off the concrete steps, knocking aside the rose trellis. "Trixie!" I shouted, rushing to the patch of dirt where...

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“Evil Machinations” by Nathalie Menard

Submitted to Contest #102

Justice is expensive, that’s why we’re saving it.Ah! Hypocrites! They plotted together, to isolate us, so that we’d believe we’re diminished! I’m sure of it! When we go to the supermarket, they hide the ripe fruits to swap them with green bananas, iron-fortified carrots and concrete apples. In the butcher’s department, they give us steaks that are tough as the sole of my boots and keep the tender pieces for themselves. It’s a conspiracy, I’m sure! The dentist tells them when we’re coming, so we have to purchase new dentures.They’re trying to...

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“Dying Stars” by Jose Gonzalez

Submitted to Contest #102

Life has taught me that humans are dying stars. We spend all of our lives growing bigger and bigger, some more than others, but we grow nonetheless, some shine more than others and some make a bigger impact than others but they are all stars, dying stars. You see, the star keeps consuming its own energy in order to shine and serve as a beacon of light and life for those that cannot shine, just to blow up in the end and make a huge spectacle out of it. Some stars shine without emitting any heat, and some shine harder once they have died. Huma...

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“Miracle” by Rachel Bacon

Submitted to Contest #102

In the way one climbs a ladder, ambition led him to climb the bodies of everyone he could step on. He was ruthless. Heartless. Borderline cruel. His name was Lloyd Mauldin. Lloyd always wore black. Black slacks, a black suit, a black tie, and a black coat. Intelligent eyes glistened behind his glasses. It was said he would sell his own mother for a dollar. Impossible though, as his mother died when he was eight. He had a corporate job for an insurance agency checking insurance claims. And he was very good at his job. His black attire a...

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“Nobility is not everyone’s cup of coffee” by Bharathi Raja R

Submitted to Contest #102

Those days, exactly at 10:00 pm, the electricity used to be cut for a minute and at 10:01 it would be back. The elders used to say, “They change the line”. Even today, I don’t understand what it means. I never experienced this phenomenon after I grew up. One of those nights, the elders were playing Thayam, a South Indian board game, in our thinnai, a raised platform in front of the house, which every house used to have those days and I don’t see in the houses being built these days anywhere. Ram uncle, Lakshmi aunty, Abdul uncle and ...

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“De är Gjorda av Metall: Reflections on Friendship, Love, and the Lack Thereof” by Candela B

Submitted to Contest #102

“Alla människor är på låtsas. De är gjorda av metall. Men jag tycker om dig. Och det är inte på låtsas, liksom. All the people are fake. They’re made out of metal. But I like you, and that is not . . . it’s not fake.”-Young Royals, Episode 4All the people are fake.When one laments that “everyone’s fake”, or proclaims they are "done with fake friends”, “fake” has a particular meaning that is commonly understood. Insincere, disingenuous. A cheap, flimsy facade. Maybe the person in question is two-faced, a wearer of masks, of thinly ...

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“Childhood Fantasies” by Don Boye

Submitted to Contest #102

When I was younger, I lived all alone with my mum in the rustic lands of Bridgetown. Her face was always the same from when I can remember, her cheeks coloured by the twin dabs of powder she applied on both sides, her hair stained with the glossy mixture she smeared upon it that smelled so much like the strawberry I loved.Strawberry was extremely scarce, so, it often disturbed me as to why one would rub such expensive condiment on the hair only to have it washed away, wasted like it meant nothing to them. It disturbed me so mu...

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“Zoe” by Jared Hammer

Submitted to Contest #102

There are very few things I remember about childhood. The taste of mac' n' cheese with hotdog slices, summers at the community pool. And Zoe. Zoe was my next-door neighbor. Her family moved into the neighborhood at the beginning of our fifth-grade year. She was tall for her age—almost five feet—had a pet iguana named “Ziggy”, and always wore the same pair of sandals that were designed to look like a couple of sharks eating her feet. But the most interesting thing about her is a certain ability that I still can’t explain to this day. ...

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“The Willow Tree Kiss” by Sarai And Skylar World

Submitted to Contest #102

Hi, I’m Anna Daniels and my childhood was all sunshine and rainbows. With my best friend, Jonathan Tylers. Jonathan was kind, sweet, smart, prudent, and quiet. We’ve known each other since kindergarten and we’ve always played outside together. He was my only best friend. The one that understood my personality. The one that understood my toughness. The one that understood me overall. Being 26 and being married is great and all, but I think that my story needs a better conclusion, I miss Jonathan. I haven’t heard from him since he moved away b...

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$50

Prize money

710

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 16, 2021 EST

Won by Shane Ransom 🏆

Title: Favorites

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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