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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

“Lost for Words” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #177

It was twenty-five years ago when my old pal, left The Big Smoke. Pete had struggled to get regular work as a snapper in London and had nothing to lose by accepting a staff photographer post with a Spanish newspaper. It’s only for a year, he’d said, enjoying one last pint with me the night before he left. You might meet the love of your life, I said You’re joking? A year will be enough for me. Clinking glasses together, we laughed.I couldn’t stand all the excitement, he said, frowning. Neither of us believed it’d wor...

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“Words for Sunshine, Words for Snow” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #177

The first English word my grandfather learned was “sunshine.” He was six-years-old and standing in an empty apartment with his mother. She was wearing black, because her husband had died the year before of stomach cancer. She would continue to wear black until she remarried, but that wouldn’t be for another eight years. My great-grandmother did not love her husband, but when he died, her life was upended. Marriage was meant to be your security and your comfort. Her name was Dasha, and she was from Lida, which is west of Minsk in Belarus. ...

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“Made in Bulgaria” by Ry Glover

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #177

CW: Brief reference to sexual assaultMy mother likes to say "I was made in Bulgaria, but born in New York." She flew to the States in the summer after the Wall came down, wearing a trench coat in July to cover the bump I made in her belly. Sweat beaded from her forehead, pooled in her armpits before leaking down her triceps and ribs. She passed the airport security agent. He eyed her with knowing contempt. He was stuck there, in his booth, in this land of in-opportunity, destined to remain in a country crumbling from within like Bulgari...

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“A PERECT WEEK IN ÇÀÝÁÇ” by Delbert Griffith

Submitted to Contest #177

ÇÀÝÁÇ was the perfect place to vacation, and to forget about one’s troubles back home. Parker Goldring booked his flight to this tropical paradise, as much to relax as to evade his psychotic ex-wife. He understood her acrimony towards him because he was a slob, but he didn’t understand why she wanted him dead. He didn’t think he was that much of a slob. Parker tried to learn as much as he could about the ÇÀÝÁÇ language as he could on the flight there, but it was terribly difficult to understand; even the rudiments of the language were intric...

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“Yesterday” by Kelsey H

Submitted to Contest #177

It was early morning and late in winter, the sky bruised and cold. Grass sheened with frost. I wanted to step outside and draw a deep breath of the air, feel the sharp cold of it filling me.Behind me, in the kitchen, my husband was on the phone to another woman. I turned to look at him. His hair was damp from the shower, face shaved.“Tonight will be fine,” he said. I could hear the soft lilt of her reply but couldn’t make out what she said.“If you come around eight no one else will be home,” he said. He hung up and turned toward me. His eyes...

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“Patient Number 1632” by Amanda Lieser

Submitted to Contest #177

Dear Reader, This story is about love and loss and sanity. It contains misunderstanding, miscommunication, and a few death threats. Read with caution.Amanda***Dear Reader,Ok, Ok, I know I am running behind, but you simply must forgive me. The next book absolutely will be out post haste! I am furiously researching, reading, learning, and maybe thinking about exploring for answers on my own-out in the real world. Hold your applause, please, Dear Reader. I can and will take my time with this next book. I simply believe it’s what this next ...

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“Going Dutch” by Mike Panasitti

Submitted to Contest #177

It’s a Willy Wonka world out there. Dis-ease is sweeping the country. Not just the mutating variants of CoVid, but the malaise of racial discontent. Liberals and conservatives stoke the fires of cultural animosity. The left tries to bridge the interests of educated college kids and the urban underclass. This is the case, even though your average inner-city dweller, especially if they have criminal experiences, will rip off a bubbly idealistic undergraduate for their undergarments if given the chance. The right h...

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“The Tracker Tracked” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #177

Eager to start, I scanned the trail through the trees and up the mountain. The weather was cool, but clear. Over years, I learned to plan my hikes meticulously. Somehow, I forget the single, essential item. Everyone insists I should never travel solo. Too many things can go wrong. A misstep can be deadly. Hiking with a buddy only makes sense. But solitude draws me. I love it. A buddy is an iffy variable. Hiking with the wrong person challenges my reasons for going at all. If I wanted chit chat, I wouldn’t be scaling a mountain, by myself, ...

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“A Tale of Two Mountains” by Katy B

Submitted to Contest #177

The beach was ash, a loose volcanic dust that slid treacherously under combat boots already filled with sweat, when suddenly the verdant dimpled butter pat that was Mount Suribachi disappeared. Instead, Ashkii was digging his bare heels into the fine loamy sand spread against the cliffs and riverbeds of Shiprock, New Mexico. The peaks of Tsé Bitʼaʼí towered over all in distant benediction. Junipers clustered like sheep in the folds of rocky hills. Smooth stones radiated heat in the sun; in the shadows cast by striped rock formations they sen...

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“The Boy Next Door” by Lindsay Flo

Submitted to Contest #177

Teenage boys are like rough, unfinished works of art. They are paint on the canvas, nothing yet blended together with a brush, the final picture imagined but unknown. Clay on the wheel, unspun and uncreated, only glistening with possibility. They are everything their mothers saw in them when they were little boys and everything they’ll one day become, waiting to be born. But when you’re a teenage girl, you don’t know this. Adult Grace would study the past and say, there was more to Alexander Laurent than met her eye. There was more to hi...

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“My Mr. Darcy” by Julie Christensen

Submitted to Contest #177

Monday, 3rd to last day of my trip I wanted this to be like "Love, Actually." Ya know, how Mr. Darcy falls in love with someone and they don't even speak the same language. Go to France, wear cute clothes, jump into a freezing lake to save someone's manuscript, let them see your cute little body, and bada bing bada boom, LOVE. Turns out, it's not that easy. I mean don't get me wrong, I've tried. Sitting in coffee shops, looking cute AF. Twirling my hair in my fingers, making eyes at any attractive man that walks in. A c...

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“The Bishop’s Gambit” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #177

--discussion of sexual violence--- Liz had several problems, but the biggest one was she was losing her mind. The lack of sleep, the pills Talia gives her to stay awake have confused her waking reality and her dreams. She could still do her job, but she needed to connect with the Bishop, only he could understand what she was going through. Her dispatches were sent out, signals into the darkness. Were they received and understood? Were they even noticed? Dr. Liz Friedman imagined they were. She trusted that her e...

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“Lost in Translation” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #177

Before arriving in China, the reality of experiencing a significant language difficulty never entered my mind. I truly believed everyone spoke English - if not fluently - enough for the essentials to be understood. Previously I’d worked in a zoo in Malaysia and had experienced no communication difficulties at all. Of course, this was because an English charity had set up my placement in the zoo and an English speaker looked after me. But, taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur could communicate tolerably well in English, and the vast Sh...

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“Room for Me” by S N

Submitted to Contest #177

The frayed cuff of Lanelle Vidal’s gray cotton hoodie slid behind her, rustling up leaves as she paced in front of the local cinema. Car horns from across the street echoed through the parking lot, like the piercing flaps of a bat’s wings in a cave. “Are you almost here?” Lanelle asked into her mobile phone. “Yeah, but please go ahead and buy the ticket.”Lanelle refrained from stating the obvious: Charlie was supposed to have...

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“Cold Men” by Lee Disco

Submitted to Contest #177

Today, the mountains were pristine. The snow sat calmly, the white fuzz thinning where the sun struck hot on stone. Many didn’t hike the trails this early in the season—thick ice warded hikers off the treacherous hikes—but that thought drew Silas in even more. The paths would be empty; that meant peace, that he could revel in the quiet the snow offered up on his lonesome. Even the thermos, hanging from a clip on the side of his bag, sounded muted as it softly clanked with each step. He navigated the path with practiced ease. His eyes s...

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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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