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#132: Time to Blume

On February 12th, Judy Blume turns 84 — and her bestselling book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, is finally becoming a feature film this year. To celebrate, we’re featuring prompts based on the YA classic released over 50 years ago.

If you need a refresher, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret follows 6th grader Margaret Simon in her quest for a religious identity. Her mother was raised Christian, her father Jewish. They’ve decided not to impose one belief or the other on their daughter, but that leaves Margaret longing for a god of her own to talk to.

Dive into this blast-from-the-past and relive your childhood reading by writing a story based on one of our five Judy Blume prompts.

🥇 Winner

“Inshallah” by Adam El Nabli

🏆 Winner of Contest #132

04/02/2022Mama has been to the hospital quite a few times before, but she always comes back home eventually. So, when she went to the hospital this morning I thought this time won’t be different. Baba even insisted that I go to football practice today as well. I’ve been playing for the Shooting Club in El Dokki, Giza, for almost 6 years now, so when Mama went to the hospital, Baba called the coach, captain Abdallah, and told him that she was ill. Captain Abdallah apparently told my teammates because when I went to practice they all asked if ...

100 comments 100

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The Gospel of Tea” by Hannah P. Simmons

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

My daughter’s house smells like a cup of London Fog. Black tea leaves and orange bergamot kissed with vanilla. The scent permeates everything, even her clothes, so she carries it everywhere. When people ask, she excitedly explains that it’s her favorite tea. My husband and I joke that she has been called to preach her doctrines to the coffee drinkers of the world. She’s already had a number of successful conversions. I watch as she spoons sugar into a porcelain teapot as the leaves steep. Bright purple violets decorate the body, and a thin ...

Read story

“Yellow” by Oma S. Ari

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

The first time we spoke about God was on a park bench in Munich. I was drinking lemon ice tea and you showed me how your dad used to pray. My dad, I explained, would not even let me watch Christmas movies as a child, as he worried the ‘religious message’ would corrupt my mind and make me join a cult. You laughed.Later that day we walked back to my place. My apartment was a mess; blankets and cups and pizza crust all floating in a purple hue from the sun setting over the rooftops across the street. You hung your jacket over a dining chair and...

Read story

“Our Father” by J.C. Lovero

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

(Note: Lola = grandmother)“Peace be with you.”“And also with you.”The cold water lingered on my forehead, traveling slowly before settling on the lines in between my eyebrows. Even though it had been over thirty years, stepping foot into the church was like riding a bicycle—you stumbled and swerved at the beginning until you got your bearings again. I looked down at the open casket, taking in a cleansing breath as I stared at your face, pale and peaceful. A stark contrast to how I’d describe you when you were alive.Our father, who art in hea...

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“Prayer in the Dirt” by Jeffery Young

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

“Are you there God? It’s me, Jaxon.” The man was just a kid. To me, at least. To everyone else he would be about nineteen. He had never grown up. Not really. He pressed his dull green eyes shut, little fleshy dams for tears and months of stress. He was dirty. The fatigue of constant fighting evident in the deep rivets, cuts, and bruises that criss-crossed his face. They were a part of him now. Even if he ever left the trenches the scars would remain, inside and out, as natural as his freckles. The mud had become the bapt...

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“He Took His Wings, And Fled” by James Miller

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

It was in an impassioned service of worship at Water's Edge Evangelical Church, sitting at the far end of a packed pew, that Mateo decided he did not want to believe in God. He didn’t disbelieve. Rather, he didn’t want to affirm belief. If it came his turn to profess, he intended, like a nervous freshman on the first day of class, to answer, “Pass.” A sweating, invigorated preacher stalked the stage in premium denim and a tailored silk button down. “Satan is on the prowl!” he insisted. “He just wants to waste your time. If he can’t make yo...

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“The Regular” by Jasmine Crafts

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

My sister June and I can feel change coming the way some people can smell snow before it falls. When you’re about to leave a place, the electricity of impending change zaps around it. Things you never noticed before seem precious and things that you use every day have to prove themselves worthy of the space they’d take up in a box. We have moved 23 times in the 18 years since I came along. That is how Dad always says it, like I was just passing through and decided to stay. “Before you came along, Mom and I used to sleep between sand ...

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This week's prompts

Start your story with a character saying “Are you there, God? It’s me…”

Dialogue – 108 stories

Write a story where a character is exploring their religious or spiritual identity.

Fiction – 59 stories

Write a story about a couple with fundamentally different beliefs.

Valentine's Day – 23 stories

End your story with a character saying “Thank you, God. Thanks an awful lot.” (sarcastically or not).

Dialogue – 44 stories

Write a story about a teenager whose family is moving.

Teens – 46 stories

Stories

“Inshallah” by Adam El Nabli

🏆 Winner of Contest #132

04/02/2022Mama has been to the hospital quite a few times before, but she always comes back home eventually. So, when she went to the hospital this morning I thought this time won’t be different. Baba even insisted that I go to football practice today as well. I’ve been playing for the Shooting Club in El Dokki, Giza, for almost 6 years now, so when Mama went to the hospital, Baba called the coach, captain Abdallah, and told him that she was ill. Captain Abdallah apparently told my teammates because when I went to practice they all asked if ...

100 comments 100

Read story

“The Gospel of Tea” by Hannah P. Simmons

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

My daughter’s house smells like a cup of London Fog. Black tea leaves and orange bergamot kissed with vanilla. The scent permeates everything, even her clothes, so she carries it everywhere. When people ask, she excitedly explains that it’s her favorite tea. My husband and I joke that she has been called to preach her doctrines to the coffee drinkers of the world. She’s already had a number of successful conversions. I watch as she spoons sugar into a porcelain teapot as the leaves steep. Bright purple violets decorate the body, and a thin ...

Read story

“California Dreaming” by Kathleen Fine

Submitted to Contest #132

Miriam sets her suitcase on her twin bed and carefully begins to place her folded clothes inside, taking her time. Her pink bedspread and sheets are already packed up in a cardboard box across her room. She only has a few more hours left in this bedroom and she’s trying to savor the last moments she has in it. Miriam has conflicted feelings about moving. This has been her home for the past 14 years since she was born. When Miriam hears songs about California on the radio, she hears people sing about beaches, palm trees, and sun-kissed s...

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“Selcouth” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

Submitted to Contest #132

SELCOUTH He said he was from France but there were a lot of French words he couldn’t quite pronounce. Take for example, on his first visit to the fancy restaurant down the street, he asked for le yaourt and cringed when the waitress frowned. He asked for tea instead, his voice low to the point of a whisper. To describe him would be to momentarily describe the afterlife: chimerical and dull. He had the most unremarkable face: a beard too rough to touch; lips, small and pink; green eyes like the lake Carezza and messy brown hair. He ...

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“Goodbye to the Monster Under the Bed. ” by Emerald Lace

Submitted to Contest #132

There is a monster under my bed. And I know… I know what you are thinking. That I am crazy, but it’s the truth. I met the monster, who calls himself Greg, although I have doubts that’s his real name, when I was only three years old. I’d accidentally left my foot over the side of the bed and Bam… Hello Greg. Initially he’d tried to scare me, because either it’s his job or his enjoyment, but when he realized he wouldn’t frighten me, we became fast friends. I’d stay up at night to play Jacks or a monster game called Quartei, which I hat...

Read story

“Yellow” by Oma S. Ari

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

The first time we spoke about God was on a park bench in Munich. I was drinking lemon ice tea and you showed me how your dad used to pray. My dad, I explained, would not even let me watch Christmas movies as a child, as he worried the ‘religious message’ would corrupt my mind and make me join a cult. You laughed.Later that day we walked back to my place. My apartment was a mess; blankets and cups and pizza crust all floating in a purple hue from the sun setting over the rooftops across the street. You hung your jacket over a dining chair and...

Read story

“Our Father” by J.C. Lovero

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

(Note: Lola = grandmother)“Peace be with you.”“And also with you.”The cold water lingered on my forehead, traveling slowly before settling on the lines in between my eyebrows. Even though it had been over thirty years, stepping foot into the church was like riding a bicycle—you stumbled and swerved at the beginning until you got your bearings again. I looked down at the open casket, taking in a cleansing breath as I stared at your face, pale and peaceful. A stark contrast to how I’d describe you when you were alive.Our father, who art in hea...

Read story

“Olivia” by Hen Neralany

Submitted to Contest #132

C/TW: Death.I hear them arguing outside my room.“Noah, PLEASE, we can’t leave him like this, we CAN’T be like this.”“Jade, look-Jade, just listen to me! Look at me! You are being emotional. You aren’t thinking rationally! We have a life here and-”“We HAD a life here, Noah, we HAD!”My mom lets out a wail. A loud and terrible sickly wail that grips at your heart and makes your hair stand on end.I sink my head in between my knees to drown everything out.Everything is dark and quiet, everywhere you look all you see is a black void.Just where I w...

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“Blood Ties” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #132

“Are you there, God? It’s me…” She dropped the book and stared at her hand. It was the paper. The shiny, glossy paper of the supplement in Sunday’s newspaper. She had wanted another ad for her collection. I don’t know where they get some of their ideas from. Just too crazy. The cut on her pinkie finger had left a thin white line on the skin that began to hint at blood. It did not register in her mind until a smear of redness trailed down her pink bedspread. What? How did…? Is that mine? ...

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“Last Day of Summer” by Haley Kanewske

Submitted to Contest #132

What could that noise possibly be? As I fumbled around for my phone, I just kept hearing the same annoying thuds repeatedly. It was 4 a.m. who could possibly be up at this time. As I stumbled out of bed stubbing my toe along the way I saw a faint light coming from the neighbor's house down the street. Was that the Johnsons’ house? Was that a moving truck? To be completely honest their son Thomas, who was a year younger than me has always creeped me out. I can say I am definitely not sad to see him and his family go. Why the s...

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“Hallowed Sound” by Thom With An H

Submitted to Contest #132

Nate remembered one thing vividly about his first day there—it was quiet, too quiet for a teenager. Go a mile in any direction and there was hustle and bustle, but not here. Here the quiet was loud and that was unnerving. It was more than just the silence though. There was something else. Nate just wasn’t sure what it was. It might have been the gate, or the fence, or the fact that most of the neighbors were octogenarians. He couldn’t put his finger on why. He just knew he hated this new place. He, however, also knew he didn’t have a choice—...

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“Thrive” by Daniel R. Hayes

Submitted to Contest #132

(Content Warning: Fantasy Violence, Brief Language.)“Are you there, God? It’s me…” Jake said, falling to his knees.The gargoyles attacked Sapphire City without warning and left nothing but utter destruction in their wake. No one knew where the stone creatures came from or why they attacked, but one thing was certain, they didn’t come from Heaven. How could they? Heaven is supposed to be a place of peaceful tranquility and harmony, right?At least that’s what Jake thought, staring at the wreckage around him. He saw broken pictures of happy mem...

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“Where I Am Going, You Cannot Follow” by Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #132

Content warning: Homophobia My family is moving today, and they're not taking me with them. From the bottom of the staircase I watch them shuffle in and out of rooms, hear them opening cupboards and drawers and closets, double and triple checking. My mother moves with the passion of a triathlete, crossing items off her laundry list. When my father trudges down the stairs and bumps into me with a heavy cardboard box, I am the one to apologize. For being in the way, for taking up space, for driving them out of this place. They tell me they...

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“Bangs vs Mullets” by Jamie Gregory

Submitted to Contest #132

Brad walked the three blocks from his apartment to Strikes and Pints with nothing to keep him company besides the sound of his defeated footsteps landing on the sidewalk. He had discovered the bowling alley dive bar in college and, now that he’s practically a regular there, he couldn’t think of a better place to find solace tonight. He paused at the final crosswalk, waiting for the light to change, and glanced at the scrolling marquee on the bank sign across the street. Temperature: 15°FHe jammed his stiff hands into his coat pockets, s...

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“Prayer in the Dirt” by Jeffery Young

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #132

“Are you there God? It’s me, Jaxon.” The man was just a kid. To me, at least. To everyone else he would be about nineteen. He had never grown up. Not really. He pressed his dull green eyes shut, little fleshy dams for tears and months of stress. He was dirty. The fatigue of constant fighting evident in the deep rivets, cuts, and bruises that criss-crossed his face. They were a part of him now. Even if he ever left the trenches the scars would remain, inside and out, as natural as his freckles. The mud had become the bapt...

Read story

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$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

127

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 11, 2022 EST

Won by Adam El Nabli 🏆

Title: Inshallah

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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