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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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” by Amy St. pierre

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 nonchalantl...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Sonny's Story” by Brennan Mcpherson

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 tr...

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“Young Mother” by Amna Ahmad

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 ...

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“Chanda Mama” by Aashita Pandey

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 f...

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“Shattered Glass” by Margo Harris

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 sh...

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“KUNDA” by Shoma Chatterji

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 ...

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This week's prompts:

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

General – 74 stories

Write a story about someone trying to escape their situation.

General – 47 stories

Write a story in which someone experiences discrimination.

General – 18 stories

Write a story about someone who defies social conventions.

General – 16 stories

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

General – 24 stories

Stories

“Kids” by Amy St. pierre

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 nonchalantl...

Read story

“Please don't leave them alone.” by Praneetha Gutta

"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...

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“Banana Fritters” by Zilla Babbitt

Banana FrittersSunday. “Well… you want to try one?” “What? The fritter thing? Sure, I guess. I got nothing else to do.” “Okay then,” Banana took on a mysterious voice, but couldn’t keep the smile out of her tone, “You shall not regret it, sir. Here is the wonderful, the dangerous, the perfect… wait for it… wait for it…”

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“Sonny's Story” by Brennan Mcpherson

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 tr...

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“Shoes Like That” by Elsa Cukierman

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...

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“Young Mother” by Amna Ahmad

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 ...

Read story

“Chanda Mama” by Aashita Pandey

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 f...

Read story

“Shattered Glass” by Margo Harris

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 sh...

Read story

“Breaking Free” by Steven Reid

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.

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“The Fairest Of Them All” by Jane Andrews

The Fairest Of Them All It was evening when I first saw her, but her beauty lit up the cottage like a blazing lantern. The seven of us were dirty and sweaty from toiling all day in the mine – tired too: it takes it out of you after a while – but our fatigue vanished when we beheld this lovely creature, curled up across several of our beds, dark hair fanned out over the pillow. Jon was the first to say anything. “A fairy – in our ‘ouse!” he breathed. Poor soul – he was dropped when he...

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“The Definition of Normal” by Alexis Blevins

Elizabeth Marie, or Eliza for short, was many things. A fighter, a dreamer, and an artist. But above all, she was a thinker. More often than not, the time we spent together was spent discussing her latest thoughts on what she called “Social Conventions”. I had never heard of it until she came along. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was hot outside, at least 90 degree weather. ...

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“Printed Words” by Joshua Insole

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 w...

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“THE PREDATOR AND THE PREY” by Patricia Buyu

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 ...

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“A Haunting View” by M.d. Smith

Such a pleasant afternoon in late September, Henry thought, as he sat high upon a boulder on the edge of the cliff. It overlooked Willow Falls in the distance nestled in the rising walls of the Alabama mountain park which towered above the canyon river directly below. It’s so peaceful, he thought, I wonder if I could find peace here at this particular spot. And on this boulder. Now pushing 40, Henry’s life had not turned out the way he had expected during his senior year in high school. That was a wonderful time...

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“Broken Mirrors, Blood Rain and Bad Deaths” by Audrey Obuobisa-darko

The water trickles down my neck slowly, warm and silent. The heat in the shower does a poor job melting away the ice in my toes; it was chilly last night. I have been standing here for three thousand seconds, this bathroom. I know this, because I’ve been counting. Thinking. I’m too afraid to move. Too afraid to feel. I’m too afraid to look anywhere. Especially in that mirror by the door. Above that sink that’s now full of shards, and water, and my blood. I saw her last night. “Habibi, are you st...

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$50

Prize money

199

Submissions

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 16, 2019 EST

Won by Amy St. pierre 🏆

Title: Kids

Winning stories will be featured on our website and in our weekly newsletter. For more information, please consult our terms of use.

Submissions will be approved and published within 7 days of the contest closing.

Please keep your submission between 1,000 - 3,000 words.

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