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#2 Toni Morrison

This week, we mourn the loss of an incredible figure in American literature: Toni Morrison. A Nobel Laureate and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Morrison penned eleven novels in her lifetime, including Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye. We hope to honor her with this edition of our competition, featuring prompts based on the resounding themes of these and other works in her remarkable oeuvre.

🥇 Winner

Kids

Winner of Contest #2 🏆

When Cassie was sixteen, she had her first boyfriend. They dated for one year. Toward the end of their relationship, the subject of kids came up because one of his cousins had announced that she was pregnant. “Do you want to have kids?” Cassie asked him. They were in his bedroom with the door open. He sat in his desk chair, and she was on the floor, playing with his family’s cat. “Yeah, a couple, maybe three,” David said nonchalantly, eyes still on his computer screen. That sounds terrible, said Cassie’s brain, before she even realized she w...

79 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

Sonny's Story

Brennan McPherson

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

The man’s home was altogether bland and uninteresting, filled with knick-knacks and worthless paintings from his younger years as an aspiring artist. The paint-job a peeling off-white darkened by cigarette smoke. “Strange,” his neighbor had said, “that a painter would hang paintings over a peeling paintjob.” “Maybe,” he said, “but is a gardener with a lawn of dandelions in a position to talk?” “Probably not.” He liked his neighbor. But he tended to like most everything, and keep the things others considered trash long after he lost use...

20 likes

Young Mother

Amna Ahmad

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

Dear Mama, I was fifteen when it happened. Life felt like a blank canvas back then. That year my canvas was painted with a crisp, blue summer. The heat wore on that year, and the guava trees never came into bloom. The air was full of dandelions whisked away by the wind. They floated wistfully in the air, longing to fall back down to their original resting position. I am at a cemetery now. The air is still as bright. The guava trees are dead now. The dandelions have been lost to the changing weather conditions. My canvas has overflown with pa...

18 likes

Shattered Glass

Margo Harris

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

She walked the Earth doing her best to avoid the broken glass beneath every footstep she took. The ghosts that followed her were inescapable. There were things that she could not begin to make up for in her life and the ghosts knew that. There was a man, a wonderful man who meant everything to her, but sometimes he just made her so crazy. She would do things she never thought she could, and she wouldn’t even remember them once they were done. She would hear stories of actions she had taken and could not believe they were true. The bruises ...

17 likes

Chanda Mama

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

Chapter 1 Walking was starting to become a difficult task for Puri Kapoor. Her dupatta kept her wide awake, as it seemed to have a need to hug the lit lanterns that sat at the tip of warmth or kissing her hands to leave a swollen mehndi-colored mess. The Ganges pecked at her feet, bringing along small creatures she didn’t want to call fish. The chand admired its tall, thin, scattered reflection in the water, he wasn’t hiding this night. It defied all the science and research she read in her grandmother’s books. She was a crazy woman, her Nan...

16 likes

KUNDA

SHOMA CHATTERJI

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

One fine morning, Kunda went ahead and shaved off her eyebrows. She did not have a razor but she stole her brother’s without asking him. Looking at her face in the small hand-mirror that hung crookedly from a rusted nail on the wall of their shanty, she washed her face with the apology of the soap pickings she had lifted from somewhere and wiped it with her brother’s dirty towel. Then, with slightly shaking fingers, she applied the razor – the blade was already inside – to her eyebrows and worked her way through till her face became unrecogn...

7 likes

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone who's haunted by their past.

Narrative – 69 stories

Write a story about someone trying to escape their situation.

Novel – 47 stories

Write a story in which someone experiences discrimination.

Novel – 18 stories

Write a story about someone who defies social conventions.

Narrative – 15 stories

Write a story in which something seemingly innocent symbolizes something much darker.

Novel – 22 stories

Stories

Kids

Winner of Contest #2 🏆

When Cassie was sixteen, she had her first boyfriend. They dated for one year. Toward the end of their relationship, the subject of kids came up because one of his cousins had announced that she was pregnant. “Do you want to have kids?” Cassie asked him. They were in his bedroom with the door open. He sat in his desk chair, and she was on the floor, playing with his family’s cat. “Yeah, a couple, maybe three,” David said nonchalantly, eyes still on his computer screen. That sounds terrible, said Cassie’s brain, before she even realized she w...

79 likes

Please don't leave them alone.

Praneetha Gutta

Submitted to Contest #2

"Mom, please leave me alone", shouted Ananya closing her bedroom door behind, leaving her mother worried as this has been a routine since few weeks. Ananya's parents tried a lot to speak with her but she never gave them a chance or explanation for her weird behavior."Shekar, I feel something is bothering Ananya. Do you think it would be better if we speak with her friends?", suggested Ananya's mother but was not appreciated by her father."Maybe she is too much stressed out with her academics. It is her final year and a crucial one too. Moreo...

25 likes

Sonny's Story

Brennan McPherson

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

The man’s home was altogether bland and uninteresting, filled with knick-knacks and worthless paintings from his younger years as an aspiring artist. The paint-job a peeling off-white darkened by cigarette smoke. “Strange,” his neighbor had said, “that a painter would hang paintings over a peeling paintjob.” “Maybe,” he said, “but is a gardener with a lawn of dandelions in a position to talk?” “Probably not.” He liked his neighbor. But he tended to like most everything, and keep the things others considered trash long after he lost use...

20 likes

Ghosts of Dust

Konstantina Cheiladaki

Submitted to Contest #2

It was a sunny morning for Peter. And it stayed that way for him, even though the sky was covered with debris falling slowly on the ground, like the most peculiar snow, along with papers drifting through the air like weightless birds. And it was so; for Peter was lying motionless on the floor of his office, blood covering his forehead, as the floor was falling, and falling, to crash to the floor below, setting it on fire. And the date was September 11, 2001. This is the story ...

20 likes

Shoes Like That

Submitted to Contest #2

Everybody knows the Old Man.An army veteran, hair white as snow turned grey from nights of sleeping on the pavement. One arm extends into a pale hand, turned up towards the sky in a shaky plea. The other arm is a stump. Barely surviving the biting winter, he wears only a grey sweat-stained tank top and ripped-up jeans. ‘Really,’ the women say as they cross the road to avoid him. ‘He could wear something a little more decent, there are children living on this street.’ Yes, they knew the Old Man. And if there ever was a burglary arou...

18 likes

Young Mother

Amna Ahmad

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

Dear Mama, I was fifteen when it happened. Life felt like a blank canvas back then. That year my canvas was painted with a crisp, blue summer. The heat wore on that year, and the guava trees never came into bloom. The air was full of dandelions whisked away by the wind. They floated wistfully in the air, longing to fall back down to their original resting position. I am at a cemetery now. The air is still as bright. The guava trees are dead now. The dandelions have been lost to the changing weather conditions. My canvas has overflown with pa...

18 likes

Shattered Glass

Margo Harris

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

She walked the Earth doing her best to avoid the broken glass beneath every footstep she took. The ghosts that followed her were inescapable. There were things that she could not begin to make up for in her life and the ghosts knew that. There was a man, a wonderful man who meant everything to her, but sometimes he just made her so crazy. She would do things she never thought she could, and she wouldn’t even remember them once they were done. She would hear stories of actions she had taken and could not believe they were true. The bruises ...

17 likes

Blue Skies

John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #2

Blue SkiesMartha’s boss, Walter, caught her eye as she pulled her pay envelope from her box. “Let’s talk,” he said. He turned and stepped into his office. Martha didn’t want to miss her bus. When that happened, her whole schedule got thrown off. Ordinarily, getting called into a meeting at day’s end on a Friday would be cause for anxiety. Those meetings were always bad news.Being one of the newspaper’s best ad sales people, Martha wasn’t worried. They needed her.Walter indicated the chair when she entered. There goes the bus, thought M...

16 likes

Chanda Mama

Shortlisted for Contest #2 ⭐️

Chapter 1 Walking was starting to become a difficult task for Puri Kapoor. Her dupatta kept her wide awake, as it seemed to have a need to hug the lit lanterns that sat at the tip of warmth or kissing her hands to leave a swollen mehndi-colored mess. The Ganges pecked at her feet, bringing along small creatures she didn’t want to call fish. The chand admired its tall, thin, scattered reflection in the water, he wasn’t hiding this night. It defied all the science and research she read in her grandmother’s books. She was a crazy woman, her Nan...

16 likes

Corruption

Kira Krieger

Submitted to Contest #2

On a grassy cliff of Angel’s Haven’s shoreline, Katniss and Zoe were inched towards the edge by an opposing force. Even with their combined years of fighting abilities, the enormity of the group attacking them forced closer and closer to an afternoon swim with razor rocks. The fifteen hooded figures didn’t stop until the ledge fell out from under the girls.Mid fall, every molecule in their bodies were ripped apart and transported to craft dozens of kilometers above the small peninsula town. The two laid unconscious on two metal beds. Two mor...

13 likes

Breaking Free

Steven Reid

Submitted to Contest #2

The bus ride from Meridian to DC was supposed to take twenty one hours and thirty minutes. That seemed like an eternity to Shane when he’d bought the ticket, but as they cross the Blue Ridge Mountains, the excitement for starting this new journey gave way to dread about what was to come. It wasn’t so much fear of where he was going as much as it was the fear of the unknown. But he had to admit, whatever was to come had to be better than what he was leaving behind. It was hard to believe that only a month had passed since his parents ha...

13 likes

Printed Words

Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #2

1The worst moment came when I needed to use the bathroom. I had held on for as long as I could – until my bladder was at exploding point, actually – but I knew I would have to go sooner rather than later.But how would I do it? I looked around, searching for something to aid me in this process. At that moment, I was simultaneously relieved and miserable that I was unaccompanied; I was deeply lonely and terrified, but glad that nobody was present to witness such an embarrassing spectacle.My eyes fell on an empty soda bottle. I considered it fo...

11 likes

The One Who Read My Story

Matthew Ward

Submitted to Contest #2

First, Vicar, let me take you to the flower bed because, when I first saw her, she was sitting in the garden out the back of a café, and she had a daisy in her hair—a daisy just like the ones in this flower bed. I had ordered a cup of camomile tea and a piece of carrot cake, and I was planning to work on my novel. I’d already been at it for two years, and now I had my eighth draft and my red pen ready to pick away at it some more. At around page ten, I placed the salt and pepper on top of my pile of pages, and I went to use the washroom. Whe...

10 likes

Candle in the Dark

Submitted to Contest #2

CANDLE IN THE DARKThey have let me keep the candle. Oh, of course I’m not allowed to light it. Even if someone visiting me (if anyone ever did, apart from Frances) managed to smuggle in a lighter, or a match, then I don’t for one minute doubt, some sensor, or some surveillance, would immediately set off an alarm that reverberated through the whole building. Or on second thoughts – maybe not. They wouldn’t want to cause panic. It would probably just sound in the relevant room. But they let me ke...

9 likes

THE PREDATOR AND THE PREY

Submitted to Contest #2

THE PREDATOR AND THE PREYZuri felt her phone buzz from under the sofa cushion she was sitting on, she slowly groped for it and turned it to face the screen. A sigh of irritation followed next as she stared daggers at the caller. Quickly, she slid the green call button to the red one cutting it off and threw the phone to the corner of the sofa she was lying on. It landed with a dangerous thud next to her feet almost hitting the arm of the sofa and come toppling down to the shiny marble floor of her apartment. She then turned with herback in c...

9 likes

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Contest #2

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$50

Prize money

171

Entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 16, 2019 EST

Won by Amy St. Pierre 🏆

Title: Kids

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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