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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#177: Found in Translation

“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation.”

– Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Communication is the cornerstone of all relationships. A complex combination of sounds, words, gestures, and written symbols help us navigate the world and get our intentions and feelings across. It’s remarkably efficient, but sometimes, regardless of how clearly you thinkyou’re expressing yourself, things get lost between sender and receiver.

Inspired by the act of translating thoughts and feelings into words and actions — and the things that can get lost (or found) in the process — here are this week’s prompts:

This week's prompts

Write a story about two or more characters who don't speak each other's language (literally or metaphorically), but still find a way to communicate.

Dialogue – 54 stories

Set your story in a meeting where a professional interpreter takes some liberties, with major consequences.

Funny – 12 stories

Write about someone who is slowly forgetting their mother tongue or losing their language.

Character – 22 stories

Lost in a foreign city where they don’t speak the language, your character uses a translation app to get around, but constantly runs into problems.

Adventure – 9 stories

Write a story about a character who struggles to translate their thoughts and feelings into words and action.

Angst – 53 stories

Stories

“THE CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE” by BRUCE MARTIN

Submitted to Contest #177

(With Acknowledgement to Abbott and Costello)The Chinese contingent visiting the White House, made up of current and past leaders:Xi Jinping (Paramount Leader)Hu Jintao (Paramount Leader 2004-2013)Wen Jiabao (Premier)Hou Guofeng Wat Lien ChanYu Kuo-hwa He Zhao ZiyangThe American president is given a thorough briefing prior to such a high-level meeting to acquaint him with the very important attendees.American President: “Bob, what’s on the agenda this afternoon?”Advisor to the President: “Sir, you have a very important meeting with...

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“Coffee, Hotto.” by William Richards

Submitted to Contest #177

It was the day after I arrived in Japan, and now the buzz of getting here had subsided, I realised I craved the buzz of a cup of coffee. There was no kettle, English tea or instant coffee in the accommodation where we were staying, an inner city apartment that I was sharing with Jack, the other sophomore here for a semester of mathematics and good food. I hustled up and down a few streets for a convenience store. I found one, nestled among high-rise buildings, down the third street I searched. It was plastered in screens showing bright a...

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“No Words Needed” by Susana María Castro Egas

Submitted to Contest #177

A boy quietly opens the yard door, he takes car steering wheel with him and sit on the stone wall to see the path ahead. The breeze ruffles his hair, rushing air in his face through the open car window at high speed. Leaving. Going far far away. He only has one seat though; he wishes another sit so his sister can go with him. But he can’t, she`s not allowed. A high pitch scream breaks his window and the car fades in the air. He is back in stone wall with is steering wheel, his sister in inside with their parents, but he no longer hears a sou...

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“A Reason to Learn” by Echo Watts

Submitted to Contest #177

Asher 6:30 A.M The alarm I set for 6:00 is sounding. For a second, I get irritated with my phone for waking me up, until I look at the time. Of course, on one of the most important days of my life, I woke up late. I have to go. There’s no time to shower, obviously, because I have to get there in about 15 minutes. Now I'm just irritated with myself. My heart and head are pounding with panic as I put on a button-up shirt and jeans. I slide into my shoes and rush out of my small apartment, down 2 flights of stairs,...

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“Voice of the Pheonix” by Aurora Martin

Submitted to Contest #177

*Warning, references to slavery and child abuse She didn’t know what to think as she gazed upon the people who had been brought before her. They were children, teens, and adults, but they had all been slaves for some amount of time. Some for weeks, some for years. All of them were muttering in different languages, but all seeming to understand each other for some reason or another. Queen Crystal was looking at a crowd of people that had been taken from their homes, their kingdoms, and been forced into labor and to fight to survive. A lot of...

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“"A little away from Home"” by Zamauri King

Submitted to Contest #177

"Sadie, never forget where you came from", these were the words of my mother, of course back then her English wasn't as fluent as my father's, but those words still sprung into my mind as clear as day. I'm sitting in my kitchen, staring at the boiling pot of chopped up pork, tomatoes, and onions on the stove under a dimly lit light. I took a long sigh and tried to get all my thoughts together. It seems a little harder cooking dinner, even though the smell of garlic and various spices filled the air. And my appetite wasn't as strong as before...

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“Crows and a Writer” by Ella Bennett

Submitted to Contest #177

My everlasting passion for writing never failed me and it never struggled to show in my stories. I’d write about silly fantasies a person could only dream of; fiction just stood out to me as yellow does in a grey-scale painting. My writing history traces back to my four-year-old self. I couldn’t tell you what I’d write about, but you can bet it didn’t make much sense. Regardless, my family always said I had great potential, even when I would write mindlessly with no planning as I did at four. But I wouldn’t just write about fable ideas my br...

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“The Christmas Star.....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #177

'Twas the night before Christmas. Ken Doll O'Flaherty crept through his house. There was no bourbon left, not even a cigarette for his mouse. Ken Doll was now 66 years old. It had been forty years since he had met and dated his one and only love, Barbara. Other young couples had instantly dubbed them Ken and Barbie, so young and good looking. Barbie had been his girl, so fresh and pretty. But these days, Ken would glance at Barbie sitting in the other arm chair. After their shotgun wedding, you might say Barbie had let herself go. Five babi...

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“Express Your Self” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #177

I always thought that it was me. I still do. Forty years on, I know I still do. That was bad once, then I managed to make it work. I managed to take that responsibility and make myself responsible for my life, and I moved on. Only I didn’t quite manage to move on, not completely. I sit here right now and nothing has changed. Not really it hasn’t. I don’t think I will ever find the words that will show her who I really am. The words I need to unlock this circle of pain that we are trapped in remain elusive. But then, the pai...

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“Chance of Snow” by Abbie Davis-Marsh

Submitted to Contest #177

Four hours into the two-hour drive between Belleville and exit 137 the ceaseless sound of rubber reverberating against miles of rocky asphalt beat against Robb’s skull. “I think the game is on.” He tuned the radio, through the static hiss until the fluid voice announcer boomed carried him back, riding alongside his father, cheering on the Spartans together.“I’m a Michigan fan,” Aaron said, pulling at the maize M embroidered on his blue hoodie. Every other weekend wasn’t enough time to keep his son from picking up on his mother’s nonsense.“D...

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“The Birds” by Kimberly Pienkawa

Submitted to Contest #177

Content warning: gore I still dreamt of it: I still dreamt of birds with snapped necks left at my doorstep. The raw offering and its residue. Then, me and my sister crouching down, knees pressed to asphalt, picking apart the feathers from the bone. I watched my sister place the pulp to her mouth, a tedious effort. I devoured, simply. For once, I was feeling everything: the winter’s frost, the dewdrops in dirt, my hands. My hands, ragged and exposed. There was a brief glimpse of scales, translucent, glued with sticky membranous ...

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“In Retrospect” by Chase Hunter

Submitted to Contest #177

I didn't know I was in a conversation, I suppose that's the point of the translation part. Then again, I didn't know a lot of things for a long time. This is where it started: "I'm slipping!" Her voice was shrill and scared. I grabbed on tight to the rocks and watched as she fell past me. I was told after that we were two hundred feet up, a whole twenty-ish stories of wretched fall. I felt the wind blow into my ear as she screamed, shooting past me like some sort of dreadful comet. She was right at the top too. I'd always likened El...

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“Things Get Lost in Translation” by Etya Krichmar

Submitted to Contest #177

On March 8, 1978, the morning after my husband's uncle picked us up from JFK Airport in Brooklyn, New York; we stood on the corner of 65th Drive and 108th Street in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, ready to explore our new surroundings. The night before, as the Soviet refugees claiming religious discrimination and clearing customs, we legally entered the United States of America. Afterward, we got into my husband's uncle's car and drove to his apartment. The falling snow was a distraction. I couldn't stop staring through the car's window as ...

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“The Voice of Lonelinesss” by Brandon Rich

Submitted to Contest #177

Liam paces up and down the grocery store aisles. His movement is rapid, frantic even, fingers drumming against his sides at different intervals like hatches not battened in a storm.His eyes scan up, down, across the shelves — searching, searching, searching. A desperate gaze probing waves of colors and shapes and heights clashing so heavily they homogenize. Where is it, he says, where could it be? It was here, I know it was here.He thinks he knows it was here, at least. If he doesn’t find it, he’s not sure what to do. “It” being a small...

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“Marie” by Natalie Schmitt

Submitted to Contest #177

Trigger Warning: Slight gore, blood. “You’re so difficult!” I screamed, the wind lashing my hair in front of my face. She yelled something back, but I couldn’t hear her over the violence of the wind. It surrounded us as if we were the only two people in the world, swirling around us in massive gusts, all directions, spinning like a top. It rushed through the leafless trees, stormed through the old bones of the faded red barn at the end of the cornfield. It was winter, and the corn was all gone, yellow and dead, old stalks smashed flat agai...

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$250

Prize money

150

Contest entries

70

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 23, 2022 EST

Won by Laurel Hanson 🏆

Title: Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen Without a Hearing Aid

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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