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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.

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

The Definition of Normal

Submitted to Contest #2

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. I wanted nothing more than to stay inside where the AC was, but my mother had decided I’d be better off outside. She had told me to swing by the local pool, mayb...

9 likes

Leaving Georgia

Melanie S.

Submitted to Contest #2

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 was the one who talked our teacher into letting her off with just a warning. When she drank too much at our seni...

9 likes

A Haunting View

M.D. Smith

Submitted to Contest #2

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. His girl Emily was a cheerl...

8 likes

Indigo Blue

Agnes Sharan

Submitted to Contest #2

DisclaimerThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***‘This land,’ my forefathers used to say, ‘is alive. It feels. It was never meant to give us what we didn’t need. And if we take more than what is owed, it shall rise against us.’Indigo blue, the early morning sky just before the sunrise, lays before me. Ne...

8 likes

Broken Mirrors, Blood Rain and Bad Deaths

Audrey Obuobisa-Darko

Submitted to Contest #2

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 still in there?” I ca...

8 likes

A Hundred Years Old, You Say?

Rima ElBoustani

Submitted to Contest #2

“A hundred years old, you say?”“What?”I speak a little louder. “A hundred years old, you say?!” “What?”I speak louder still. “A hundred years old, you say?!!”“What?” Just then, my grandpa burst with unconstrained laughter. “I heard you the first time, Jenny. It’s just more fun this way. There’s so little I can do nowadays.”“Very funny, Grandpa.” “Yes, it was, wasn’t it?” “So, how does it feel to be turning a hundred today?” “Like any day, Jen. It’s just another number. I feel as I did at twenty, just with more wrinkles and less hair. And a s...

7 likes

Pendulum Heart

Submitted to Contest #2

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.The sounds of a clock had echoed in Marcus’s head for the last week. At first he thought it to be the clock on his wall, but even after removing the batteries the ticking continued. It was slowly starting to affect his day-to-day life. He grew more and more panicked. This morning he threw his expensive wristwatch into the nearby river. Nothing seemed to be able to stop the ticking.A sudden realization came over Marcus. He decided this weekend he would escape to his family home out in the country. Where he could get awa...

7 likes

The Mirror

JE Rowney

Submitted to Contest #2

I’d like to say that I look forward to my lunch break, but the truth is I’ve been finding it difficult lately. Today, we’ve barely had a chance to start eating before Stella starts telling us about her latest Primark haul. “I wouldn’t usually shop there, of course, but Ruth was wearing this gorgeous layered skirt and I had to get one. Six pounds, no kidding. Then I end up spending about fifty pounds on a load of other stuff I didn’t need.” We nod in acknowledgment. That’s how it goes, I suppose. Not that I shop much, but I can empathise, yo...

7 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

Traveler, tired and weary

Submitted to Contest #2

The diner shines like a beacon, dressed up in neon, and grease smudged windows, and it calls to Ruth like a siren. I have coffee, it sings, and polyester seats for your weary ass to rest upon. And like a fool, Ruth answers.She leans against the door until it gives with a chime, and somewhere in the depths of the kitchen, someone calls, ‘Hey, there.’ unenthusiastically. Ruth notes the ‘Seat yourself’ sign standing by the door, leaves a trail on the checkered black and white floors as she walks to the corner booth, and slides inside. The ...

7 likes

We Both Needed Saving

Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #2

“I’m sorry for your loss.”The words ring out around the graveyard, yet Lizzy can’t bring herself to say them. She knew she should. She should be sorry. But of all the myriad emotions that she had been feeling over the last two weeks, sorry had rarely been one of them. Guilt, now guilt she’d had in abundance. That had been the central theme of her last break down, when she had collapsed in tears in the local supermarket, all because she’d caught sight of the flavoured milks. Embarrassment had followed when she got home, but there on the floor...

6 likes

So What if it's Different

Tammy Filipkowski

Submitted to Contest #2

There is a common saying, “Birds of a feather flock together”. As a young girl I didn’t quite understand this and being an inquisitive child, I would ask why each and every time I heard it. Now a mature adult woman, I get it. I do believe that this idea has somewhat changed though, as more and more people broaden their horizons by exploring new concepts. For the past two years I have been romantically involved with an Indian man. What started out as a few short chats blossomed into so much more than I would’ve ...

6 likes

Picture This

Submitted to Contest #2

He emptied the box of photos on to the kitchen counter. Saturday morning garage sales were rarely this fruitful. He sifted through the treasure trove of old snapshots. Patinaed with the sepia glow of history, this collection of arbitrary memories would work perfectly for his next project.He flipped through the photographs so quickly that he almost missed the black and white image of a burned down lot. It seemed out of place with the rest of the box’s contents.Lucy sauntered in from the backyard. “Hey, did you find anything super-duper good a...

6 likes

To Each His Own

Keturah Tea

Submitted to Contest #2

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I mumble to myself through gritted teeth. My nerves have yet to register the pain in my leg; even though my eyes are doing a well enough job of preparing me for what’s to come. I’m no doctor, not even legally a person, but I know that my leg doesn’t bend this way and bones are supposed to be inside of your skin. “I told you to wait for me,” his voice is calm but I can hear his anger in the pounding of his footsteps. “A crate of salt is too heavy for one person. Now you injured yourself, and more importantly, you rui...

6 likes

It's Not Easy To Cheat in Real Life

Inci Alemdaroglu

Submitted to Contest #2

I was mad. I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing. I did it out of anger. I didn’t mean it. Blame my head, and not my heart. That’s what everyone says, isn’t it? They always try to defend themselves. I’m not going to do that, though. I take full responsibility for what happened, no matter how much it hurts. Thirty years ago a beautiful girl baby was born to two loving parents. She was named Hope after her brave grandmother who had sacrificed her life giving birth to Hope’s mother. Hope grew up in a wonderful, happy family and beca...

6 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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