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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.

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

“First Day” by Hannah Wright

Submitted to Contest #2

Sarah was quiet in the back of the car. She stared out of the window as her Mum drove her through the new, unfamiliar streets. These streets didn't look like the ones she was used to in her old town, the town she had left just day before. Those streets had been wide, they had been lined with large shady oak trees, there had been children playing in gardens and riding bikes. The road they drove down now had no trees, there were no big front gardens for children to play in. The roads were just narrow and dull.Sarah fiddled with one of the two ...

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“One Wish” by Gift Ukay

Submitted to Contest #2

You have one wish.One wish, and you wouldn’t want more.You just want to be noticed, but everything you do, they say you seek attention. Hearing that, you would shrink back into your shell, becoming more withdrawn than you were initially. You see them gist and laugh, your heart aches to be a part of them. But once you make an attempt, they give you a look of contempt, silent wishing you would shut up. You speak sense, yet they do not want to reckon with you. You return to your shell, becoming muter than you were.You see them have fun and...

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“I Remember Charlie” by Unknown User

Submitted to Contest #2

One day Charlie and his dad went for a ride to the park. As they sat on the sidelines watching the other boys play, Charlie sighed, "I know those boys. I know them from school. Do you think they would let me play baseball too?" Charlie's dad glanced down at his son. He wanted him to have fun, so he walked away to ask a boy if Charlie could play. "Do you think my son could get into the game? I know he is not very fast, but he would simply love it if you could give him a chance." The boy turned his head towards his other team mates...looki...

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“Lost Soul” by Megan Taylor

Submitted to Contest #2

Autumn coloured leaves swirled around in the wind as cars try to bypass the traffic that holds them from their destination. The loud sounds of cars zooming passed me blurred into nothing but silence except for the ever so sudden crunch of leaves – a deathly silence that seemed to drain all of my energy. I wasn’t prepared for today, to be ripped of my rights and respect once again. I felt the powerful winds pull at my white, pristine dress as I trudged towards the familiar building I call school. I observed from a far as I watched students dr...

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“Men Zoned” by Priyanka Kesari

Submitted to Contest #2

It's 21st century and world still is struggling with a problem of zones. Like geographical zones and regional zones etc. but these zones are really big and somehow they are made by us, for our comfort zone. But there is one more zone which we name as men and women, this story is about that zone. The day she got married she was happy and started to think that she is in a good place now and now she don't have to look behind which is her past.She is moved on in her mind. She thought that marriage is the only answer to her issues of life....

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“The Slim Jim Caper: A True Story by Timothy N. Gocke. This is a story about discrimination created by carelessness and incompetence by a small-town police department.” by Tim Gocke

Submitted to Contest #2

It all happened on a chilly night during the Christmas holidays in 2002. Our son, Tim Jr., was a senior in high school enjoying an evening out at a home of one of his friends. It was around 10:00 in the evening when Tim decided to drive down the street to the Marathon station for a Slim Jim. That had always been his favorite snack since he was a little boy. It happened to be around closing time when Tim went to the front door of the Marathon station but it was locked. He left there to go to another convenient store that was about two hundred...

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“The Cane” by Donald Devaul

Submitted to Contest #2

How did it come to this? Is it your fault? You're cooped up in a crappy motel, with nothing but your cane and your thoughts. You grab your cane, that's laying on the bed. It's a black cane with several large grooves just before the silver head on the top. The Initials 'B.D.' are etched into the top from when you were a kid. Your dad wasn't happy that you were playing with the cane, but he was amused and surprised that you managed to etch his initials. Even if it did scratch up the handle. Your smile is quickly replaced with grief and anger a...

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“Doomsday” by MeAnna Williams

Submitted to Contest #2

“Doomsdeh is cuhmin’ son.”These were the words of my father whom I'd admired greatly. He had always told me about Doomsday and its coming, but I had never believed him. Honestly, I didn't even really knew what it meant. And, as the typical carefree child, who cared about any of that crap?“Timothy! Pick up ya’ trash!”He’d yell at me for being a litterbug. When you're seven, or even much younger than that, you’d usually be scorned for drawing on the walls, not “littering.”“Timothy! Don' spit’cha gum out in duh ocean!”…Okay, he never said that,...

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“Dear Dolly” by Minty Blossom

Submitted to Contest #2

I thought that day would've been fun. The sun shone down on me, highlighting the beautiful pearl necklace I'd put on that morning. The bright arrays of light seemed to tell me that everything would go smoothly- But it couldn't have been further from the truth. As I walked along the cobblestone pathway, the trees of the seemingly never-ending forest surrounding me like a garden's fence, I hummed a soft melody that, at the time, I thought only an angel could re-create. Every step I took felt surreal, every firefly an accent in this fairy-tale...

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“Harvesting Teeth” by Jordan Clifford

Submitted to Contest #2

The last thing I want to do is offend you. Or, worse still, for you to think that I'm ungrateful for the gifts that you leave me - those white soldiers which you stow softly beneath your pillows. I'm immeasurably thankful each time I lift your heads with soothing whispers and take one of them. Such a wonder they are, those tiny sticks of chalk which nestle humbly into the palms of my hands. It's what I was made for.Yet despite my gratitude I can't help but bring up this one small, recurring issue which has been mithering – a Britishism I’ve ...

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“The Gift” by Jamen Smith

Submitted to Contest #2

A girl wakes up on a snowy, and calm Christmas morning. Her heart filled with excitement for what the day brings. The white clock on the walls ticks slowly and patiently. Seconds come and go. The gifts are wrapped in beautiful bright colors. All except one…a medium sized gift lays in the middle of the widely assorted shapes, sizes and colors of presents. Wrapped in a shiny white silk fabric. The girl stands in awe of the beautiful wrapping that she doesn’t hear her parents come into the room.The girl’s parents watch her. They exchange ...

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“Dark Oak” by Jessica Porter

Submitted to Contest #2

The sun filters in a green cascade of rupturtered light through the canopy, banking on the moss ridden rocks and leaf strewn ground. All around is the twittering of birds and swishing of tails throughout the dense forest. In the center of it all stands a single sprout, rising up through the floor, the beginnings of a new life. The very air holds still in anticipation, for what seems a lifetime. Soon, everything restarts enmasse. Shivers of despondent disappointment happen all around. The sprout has no idea what goes ...

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“The Bus Stop” by Mara Willingham

Submitted to Contest #2

The clouds had gathered over the town casting a grey light on the bus stop at the end of the street. It was here that Mandy sat on the bench, purse clutched on her lap, glaring at the sky. She had not thought to bring her raincoat and there was no telling when the bus would come. Mandy was on her way to visit her dad who was staying in the hospital on the other side of town. If it had been clear weather, she might have walked it but with the sky darkening and her legs already aching by the time she got to the bus stop she had come to the dec...

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“Don't Trust Anyone” by Aimee Waters

Submitted to Contest #2

Startled awake from my phone going off like crazy. I reach over to it to see what sale my best friend had found but much to my surprise the alert was from the presidential alert system.There has been a breach at a scientific lab and there is now a airborne disease that can kill within 2 hours of infection.That was it, no safe place we could go, nothing to protect us from the disease. I sat there rereading the message over and over again. They taught us what to do in school if this was to ever happen.Always have a bag of clothes along with fo...

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“Until Death Do Us Part - Julie Grinberg” by Joy .

Submitted to Contest #2

"I take thee to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part." his lips trembled upwards as the woman of his dreams smiled back."From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew that we were destined to be together. Every day I saw you, we laughed and we cried together, and I know that the coming years will be filled with happiness and with love." The tears he had been trying to suppress finally lept out, and he smeared them into his cheeks with a rough hand awaiting its ...

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$50

Prize money

171

Contest 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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