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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#191: Sakura

Spring is finally here! In Japan, the season is famously marked by the mass blooming of cherry blossoms, also known as sakura, an event so beautiful it attracts tourists from all over the world. Due to its impressive yet short-lived blooming, the flower symbolizes the fascinatingly transient nature of life — but it’s also associated with a message of renewal, and hope for the future.

To celebrate the new season, this week’s prompts are inspired by cherry blossoms and the feelings they evoke year after year 一 we hope they’ll bloom into great stories!

This week's prompts

Start your story with your character(s) going to buy some flowers.

Spring – 78 stories

Write about a character who is starting to open up to life again.

Character – 68 stories

Write a story about a character who’s late to witness a special event.

Funny – 25 stories

Make Japan (or Japanese culture) an element of your story.

Narrative – 37 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “I feel alive.”

Dialogue – 68 stories

Stories

“Her Turtle Shell” by Joseph Padilla

Submitted to Contest #191

The small bedside lamp gave off just enough light for April to knit without disturbing her boyfriend's sleep. It was a little past three o'clock in the morning as he snored the night away. But his guttural sounds could not pierce through her earbuds as she listened to her stories. Night after night she nursed an empty void of suppressed emotions, as they mixed with insomnia inside of her. But she got through it with the voice of the same author. His name was Charles Aplomb, which was clearly a nom de plume. Charles wrote and gav...

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“The Healing Forest” by Allison Psaila

Submitted to Contest #191

The Healing Forest Kaida was breathing heavily as she sprinted through the shadowy forest, twigs cracking and crunching underfoot, and branches clawing at her face. She finally skidded to a halt at a clearing, gasping for breath. In the middle of the clearing, Kaida could see a bright light shining and casting a warm glow over everything. Her heart sank with the realisation of what was happening – she was too late. Kaida had travelled for days on an important quest for the queen. She was to retrieve a rare plant that possessed magical he...

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“Defining Ish” by Katherine Holt

Submitted to Contest #191

Saturday 2:45pm The car in front wasn’t moving. “How long is ‘ish’”, wondered Bob. Looking at his phone the time was 2:45pm. Annabel had said “3ish.” Does ish apply to before the 3 or only after? If it applies to before, was he already late? Bob dismissed that thought. People don’t say ish if they expect you to be early. Does it have degrees? Is there an on-time, fashionably late and a late to ish? If on-time is 15 minutes, he still had 30 minutes, if it’s 20 he had 35 minutes. If it has a 30-minute window that gave him 45 minutes to get th...

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“Blossoms” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #191

I eyed the grain of rice suspiciously. It smelled old and moldy, but I didn’t care, I was a rat after all and the greenish hued grain would make a chewy snack…I didn’t need the grain, I found plenty of things to eat. I was intrigued by the man who’d been brought to this place the day before. The man had placed the grain on the old fruit crate that served as the man’s table, one of four items of furniture in the twelve-by-twelve-foot hut that served as the man’s prison cell. There was another fruit crate and two flat futon like beds on oppo...

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“The Sparrows routine” by Sarah Mcinerney

Submitted to Contest #191

Jessica peeked through the curtains of the circus tent. She has never been more exicited in her entire 16 years of living, for today she was going to achieve her dream. "and now preforming her original trapeze routine, The amazing, the talented, Sparrow!" the ring master announced in his usual enthusiasm. The crowd let out a small cheer waiting in antisipation to see the act in real time, they all got out their phones to record just a moment.Jessica was estatic to say the least, she quickly entered the ring where the bright lights ...

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“Everything changes in spring. ” by Kaylee Bronz

Submitted to Contest #191

I feel alive. The season of rebirth is soon coming. Everything and everyone will be reborn. Life will burst from the earth, blossoming from trees, rising with the sun. The songbirds in the morning. Can you hear them too? I will listen to them, each day. Singing a spring song, the music of every morning. Life is bursting from the ocean. The new tides will come in bringing its beauty to the land, nourishing the life within the ocean. Life is created for the first time in spring. After a long winter, a bird egg hatches, creating a new so...

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“From Now On; I Feel Alive.” by Elise Hendricks

Submitted to Contest #191

I don’t know what world we live in currently. It's a world of uncertainty, and fear, and it seems like no matter what I do; I just feel stuck. When I left home to move to New York City I made a vow. I, Beau Buckley, would make something out of my career, and I would one day live to see my wish come true. After all, I left everything I had behind to pursue my dreams. Is being a writer all worth it? I miss my friends. I miss my family. I miss my home. So when I wake up one day and feel as if everything changed; I feel… free...

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“The Blossoms” by JL Graves

Submitted to Contest #191

As the sun scattered light rays over the water, the lake glistened brightly on one beautiful spring morning. Above the lake, the geese formed a chorus line and dashed across the water, splashing down one by one, like kids at a summer camp’s beachfront. An adolescent eagle circling overhead plummeted for the trout in the lake but came up empty when the fish dove for safety. The eagle circled again heading for the weeping cherry tree on the nearby shore and peered at the water for another fish or bird, before once more taking flight and headin...

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“Because of Ivy” by Monet Touray

Submitted to Contest #191

-CHAPTER 1-LOCKEDThere is a forest that no one knows about except three girls, Lunar, Ivy, and Mora. But what they didn't know is this forest was not a normal forest with trees, plants, and creeks. This forest was the worst forest they could ever walk into.."MOMMM", yelled Lunar. "I'M GOING TO IVY'S.” This was Lunar's first mistake. Lunar was only 4 years old when she met Ivy and Mora. Lunar and Ivy were both about to turn 12, being that both of their birthdays were coming up, and Mora was 15. Lunar was on her way to Ivy's so that they could...

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“Ride the lightning ” by Delaney Deines

Submitted to Contest #191

The wind whipped my shoulder length ebony hair into my eyes. The rain pelted my skin, stinging my face. Thunder boomed and lightning struck all around me. Smoke kicked up under my feet with every step I took. Sweat poured down my face mixing with the rain. My fingers are bloody and burned as I cling to the jagged rocks on fire, clawing my way painfully to my destiny. I've come too far to let it end with me falling down this cliff, risked too much. An eerie whistle on the wind makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. He's coming. I...

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“THE PRAYER” by Amani Jackson

Submitted to Contest #191

Her heart was sinking lead. She felt the weight in her chest cavity. Every breath she took threatened hyperventilation. Lillian stared through her windshield, but what she saw wasn't in front of her. Zora's face had been the only thing her mind envisioned for weeks. Her coarse, black hair in a high bun; escaped spirals adorning her face. The brown, almond eyes, a family trademark, sparkling with mischief. From birth, she and Zora enjoyed a playful relationship. Motherhood taught her that the bond between mother and child could strengthen exp...

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“WHY” by Kimberly Walker

Submitted to Contest #191

My sister Gloria was two years younger than I was when she died. The Walkers were adopting us both. They were older when they decided to adopt. Clem, the father, was happy with his life, just him and Little Red, as he called Barbara his wife. They got me in 68 because mom was depressed after losing a pregnancy earlier. Wait…I still do it, jump into a story in the middle.Okay, from the beginning…My father was ten years older than my mom. One day he saw this light-skinned girl with a sassy attitude and a friendly face. They only dated for thre...

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“Flowers” by CATHERINE ALLEN

Submitted to Contest #191

August 7th, 2023 Answering an unknown phone number is always a risk, but I felt drawn to answer this one. And it was the worst call of my life. To date, at least. “Hello??” I ask. “Ma’am, this is Officer Thompson. Is this Ms. Ransom?” “Yes…” I whisper. “We just found a car at the bottom of Eagle Mountain. The registration states that it belongs to a Ms. Ransom. The belongings found inside the car belong to a, uh, Seth Johnson. And… And I… Well, we believe him to be deceased. Is he a friend of yours?” “He…....

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“My Beautiful Sunflower” by Anna Frederiksen-Washington

Submitted to Contest #191

My Beautiful Sunflower It was early April and one of the last very rare Indian Summer Days where the light and warmth dressed the city in a final promise of summer. Lisen was looking through the florist window on Jetty Road, trying to decide what flowers to buy for her friend Carina’s funeral. She felt sad and strangely weak inside and somehow the flowers did not bring that sense of comfort and strength she had hoped for. She looked at the roses; red, pink, yellow and white and thought of Carina walking through her rose garden with the se...

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“The Flower” by Angelique Sanchez

Submitted to Contest #191

Red. It was always his favorite color. I remember when he gave me this necklace, a gold pendant with a rose engraved and a phrase that read para siempre y hasta el fin. Forever and to the end. Well, we reached the end long ago and now here I still am, lost in the thought of what we were and the idea of what we could've been. "Ma'am?" Asks the vendor, taking me out of my daze. "Yes?" "The flowers? I asked if you wanted some." That's right, focus. When I walked by, and he called out "flowers!," I turned my head, and the sight itself brought ba...

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$250

Prize money

276

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 31, 2023 EST

Won by Pari Ghodsi 🏆

Title: Lilies

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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