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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...

37 comments 37
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Sonny's Story” by Brennan Mc Pherson

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...

2 comments 2
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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 ...

2 comments 2
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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...

0 comments 0
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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...

0 comments 0
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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 ...

0 comments 0
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This week's prompts:

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

General – 72 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 – 15 stories

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

General – 23 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...

37 comments 37
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“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...

9 comments 9
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“Sonny's Story” by Brennan Mc Pherson

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...

2 comments 2
Read story

“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 ...

2 comments 2
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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...

6 comments 6
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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...

0 comments 0
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...

0 comments 0
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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...

3 comments 3
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“Blue Skies” by John K Adams

 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...

1 comment 1
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“Corruption ” by Kira Krieger

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 bed...

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“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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“Ghosts of Dust” by Konstantina Cheiladaki

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...

2 comments 2
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“Leaving Georgia” by Melanie S.

Georgia latched onto me from the minute we met. We were both fourteen, and it was the first day of high school. She was the kind of girl who needed - who required - relationships to satisfy her life. Solitude was not her companion. And so, for four years, I was there through it all. When the boy she liked told her that he just wanted to be friends, I let her cry on my shoulder. When she got caught cheating on her chemistry test, I ...

0 comments 0
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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...

2 comments 2
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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. ...

1 comment 1
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$50

Prize money

195

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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