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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#121: Giving Thanks

Next Thursday marks American Thanksgiving: an occasion for people to come together, catch up, and enjoy large quantities of mashed potatoes. In keeping with the name, many also take this time to reflect on what they’re thankful for — whether that’s good friends, a great job, or the aforementioned potatoes.


This week’s prompts expand on the idea of thanks, exploring not just gratitude, but also recognition, perseverance, and shades of the phrase itself. Whether or not you’ll be celebrating on Thursday, we hope this theme gets you thinking (and in case we haven’t mentioned it lately, thank you for being a part of our amazing community!).

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone saying “Thanks a lot” (sarcastically or sincerely).

Fiction – 37 stories

Write about someone giving or receiving a gift.

Christmas – 50 stories

Write a story in which someone gets credit for something they didn’t do.

Thriller and Suspense – 13 stories

Write about a character who struggles to express their thanks.

Angst – 14 stories

Write about someone in a thankless job.

Teens – 33 stories

Stories

“Gifts from Gertie ” by Connie Elstun

Submitted to Contest #121

I shall begin with what I thought was the end. Although, the ending of our story is far too abstruse for most. You have been warned; please do proceed with caution. The future of the story, both written and in real life, takes place something like this. Gertrude, or Gertie as I call her, is now my lover and muse. I have read that all great authors need such to finish their masterpieces. And it was indeed true, as Gertie has taught me how to live life and love it. Gertie is a gift.Gertrude is my inspiration for success in my novel titled "The...

2 comments 2
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“Happy Thanksgiving” by Jayde Bennett

Submitted to Contest #121

*TRIGGER WARNING* contains suggestive cannibalism, foreshadowed torture and death"You sure they're gonna like the gift? I mean, this IS your parents we're talking about.. and I do wanna impress them." A deep voice echoes in the bathroom, slightly unclear as well as the sound of a toothbrush's bristles being scraped are heard.A soft giggle and sigh sounds out from the other side of the room, preoccupied with the the sounds of bangles clashing together, as well as the sound of a perfume bottle being sprayed."Yes, Mike. They're gonna love the g...

4 comments 4
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“Dreaming Feather Light Gifts” by Dimitra Neonakis

Submitted to Contest #121

The days were growing shorter and colder. In the Boreal world of the Northern Hemisphere, in most places, the Sun was hitting the Earth at a less direct angle. That meant shorter, colder days and longer, frigid nights. In the tropics not too much changed. In latitudes closer to the Poles nights would become longer and in some places the long, dark night of the soul would last several months. She wondered what endless night would feel like, and how people at those latitudes coped with the cold and the dark. She guessed that t...

8 comments 8
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“The Princess of Thankfulness” by Corrina Krivakova

Submitted to Contest #121

Mark looked down at the steaming bowl of mashed potato looking back up at him. He poked his fork in and out of it a few times, considering its texture. "Nanny, I'd say this part is done!" He called into the next room. His Grandmother was rummaging through cupboards for her casserole dish, which seemed to have buried itself quite well. "Oh where has that dish lost itself this time?" He heard her mutter to herself as she moved across to the next press. The dishwasher beeped to notify him it had finished its chores. So Mark opened it ...

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“The Blue Tang” by Andres Lauder

Submitted to Contest #121

Griffin had not anticipated a sudden rise to fame the moment he was given the Blue Tang. Just around the time of his seventeenth birthday, there was a horrific pandemic claiming the lives of thousands; he nor his family were allowed to leave their homes. The moment the pandemic began was when his love for music began—and he took the guitar. Prior to his birthday, Griffin spent most of his time locked in his room, playing on a cheap electric guitar his father had gotten from a garage sale way before Griffin was born. Griffin spent hours lea...

1 comment 1
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“The Sadchan” by William Hogg

Submitted to Contest #121

It was a day at the end of summer, but for Wilmington, North Carolina, a gift.  Almost noon, the temperature not yet seventy. Alan was sitting on a concrete bench, breathing slow, relaxed, and at peace. He glanced over at his nine-year-old grandson, Tommy, who was sitting at the other end of the bench. Instead of enjoying the tranquility of the moment, Tommy was hunched over and with occasional gyrations and sudden movements, playing with some sort of electronic device. Alan wasn't sure if it was a phone or something else.  &...

2 comments 2
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“To Whom It Belongs ” by Beth Lawrence

Submitted to Contest #121

I'd never imagined that this one, simple act could ever have gotten so much positive attention.  Who would’ve thought it?  I mean, I didn’t do anything that no one else would’ve done, given the circumstances. Who would stand there and do nothing? Not one soul. My fame though shall be short-lived, as it is not I who is owing this award of bravery. I am honoured you picked up my story, but I must make it clear, it is not a tale that is my own, but that of someone who cannot speak for themselves.  I was asleep when I firs...

6 comments 6
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“Thankfulness Died in Vietnam” by Deborah Elliott

Submitted to Contest #121

Thankfulness Died in Vietnam Deborah Elliott Dirk Graham didn’t have an iota of anything to be thankful for; it just wasn’t in him anymore. Two tours in Vietnam and two of his best friends had been killed, and a third had been listed as an MIA. Pete Blackwell had stepped on a land mine, Carl Winter’s parachute failed, and Steven Archer – the unknown made him the hardest kind of loss. While the four of them had been partners in crime forever, doing the stupid thing that kids do on the way to growing up, Steven and he had been ...

3 comments 3
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“Fading Lights” by Sinai Botha

Submitted to Contest #121

(trigger warning: literary insinuation of abandonment and death)When the world was new, there was a lone god that loved the stars.The god had hung each and every one of those same stars in the sky with its own divine hands, carefully constructing artworks of great beauty that could be seen no matter where it turned its gaze.For thousands of years, the god wandered the earth beneath its feet with its eyes trained to the sky, too enamored by its own creation in the heavens to notice what it had created in the wake of its wandering. From the ve...

3 comments 3
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“A Quiet Time” by Chris Charleston

Submitted to Contest #121

The sun dips behind the snowy mountain peaks of a wild, untamed America. Great plains go dim, and the forest becomes a shapeless mass of silent trees. As the sun leaves this landscape, a bright moon and thousands of stars takes it’s place. Crickets and coyotes fill the soundscape with their songs. A lone campfire flickers and cracks on a plateau overlooking the train track; one of humankind’s greatest new technological achievements. Theo, the old cowboy, scratches his grey beard and kindles the fire with twigs and dry leaves. He fiddles with...

2 comments 2
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“Itheadair Peacaidh” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #121

Reuben rubbed at his left eye as he eased opened the door with the burning bush and stepped through into the small foyer. He did not have to.Knew that, acknowledged that.The men in black suits were not guards after all.Knew that, acknowledged that.But.Slunk and held a hand up anyway. Couldn’t help it.He traced his long, pale fingers over the thick book by the second door. The words, pressed in by heavy hands, were marked down through the pages in layers of grief six fold deep, seven… or eight. He could not interpret them,...

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“Wow! Thanks for the Epiphany” by Dee Ann Leger

Submitted to Contest #121

GRATITUDE ILLUMINATED Thanks, A Lot...Ugh...and Wow...my thankfulness for this life lesson is deep and everlasting. This Thanksgiving time of year is dedicated to reminding us to be grateful. Grateful for family, friends, and even life lessons. Each of us as humans are complex creatures. Some of us are just passing through life without any thoughts outside of existing or surviving the daily grind. Many of us are cruising through life believing we already know the all 'stuff' that gets us to the end result. Then there are those that s...

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“Kitchen Heat” by Alex Klitzke

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot mom.”  Christina can already feel the rush of blood to her head that signals a migraine.  Coming to her mother’s place had been a last resort.  She feels like a teenager again.  “I don’t need the everyday condescension and I need it even less while I’m in the middle of a divorce.” Her mother, Lisa, shrugs bony shoulders and continues cutting the carrot resting on her cutting board.  A pot of soup sits waiting on the stove.  Leave it to her mother to make soup from scratch when a can of Campbell’s w...

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“Owning His Portion” by Lydi B

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot,” Nadia said in her squeaky cartoon character voice. “This lovely spread wouldn’t be so grand without all your contributions.” Or my dad’s mansion surrounding it all, you shrew. Nadia’s silicone smile froze halfway across her cheeks as she gestured toward our brimming table. My dad nodded and kissed her cheek, forcing me to suppress my gag reflex. All twelve of us—several of whom should not be present—sat down to Thanksgiving dinner. Plates and silverware clinked as dishes of sweet and savory offerings paraded around the tab...

4 comments 4
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“Harangue, meringue and pass the marmalade...” by Lisa Wentworth

Submitted to Contest #121

Start your story with someone saying “Thanks a lot” (sarcastically or sincerely). “Thanks a lot but no thanks to harangue, meringue and pass the marmalade” I said to myself as a child whilst my mom was stressing out cooking Thanksgiving dinner...although I would coin the latter part of that phrase years later. What I meant was the family headache that is Thanksgiving...I hated it! I didn’t care for the food, or at least the bland way my mother prepared it, nor the relatives, or the shear stress you could cut with an electric carving knif...

2 comments 2
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$250

Prize money

147

Contest entries

113

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 26, 2021 EST

Won by Deborah Elliott 🏆

Title: Onboard an Angel Flight

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!

Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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