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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

“Momento Mori” by Ingrid Mason

Submitted to Contest #2

Evelyn settled into a velvet armchair and listened to the night. Windblown rain pulsed in waves across the garden, arrhythmic like a failing heart.Amorphous containers loomed towards her in the gloom, compelling her to sort the family memorabilia.She chose the closest box. Her nails scratched at the edge of the sticky tape. She plucked and tugged. Rip. One flap of cardboard sprang open. Air molecules sealed for twenty years in the corrugation escaped like resinous scented ghosts.She must unwrap, sort the contents for her children and childre...

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“1387 Days” by Megan Billingsley

Submitted to Contest #2

"My questions to you keep me up at night- how do I escape this? How do I make it all stop? I wonder to myself for hours while I'm unable to sleep, even when I'm entirely exhausted. I try my hardest every single day to push through all these thoughts, the feelings, the hurt, the emotional torture, but it seems that I still wear the scars from all that you are, and my body still keeps the score, all the while, you didn't even try to tend to the wounds." *****That was her last journal entry. The last...

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“A Room of One's Own” by Arisah Wood

Submitted to Contest #2

Trevor had just finished cleaning the cages and was holding one of the lab rats, gently stroking its soft fur. “Hello?” The voice surprised him. It was late, everyone should have gone home by now. Trevor plastered on a smile to cover up anything less than desirable. A young woman with red hair and bright blue eyes stood in the doorway. “I’m sorry to bother you. Everyone else seems to be gone. I’m new, just got the lab down the hall. I left to get some things from the supply room and now I’m locked out and my car keys are in there.” “I can he...

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“Our Tragedy ” by Aline Tomimori

Submitted to Contest #2

I was driving for about two hours when I finally calmed down.At first, my hand was shaking, my heart was racing and I wasn’t blinking so much, I stayed in there for about twenty minutes until I finally started the car. The streets were almost empty, the sky was getting darker and darker, I had no idea where I was driving to. My phone was ringing every ten minutes, messages notifications were popping all the time, the sound of the phone was fading away more and more as I was driving.For the first time ever I wasn’t worried about what others w...

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“Cobblestone Road” by David Chaumette

Submitted to Contest #2

Anne sighed -- well, she sighed as much as a sixty-five year old can sigh while feverishly adjusting every piece of furniture in a large banquet hall. She had never known someone 100 years old before, never mind been related to one. Yet, that was no excuse to be late to your own party.Frederick Warren was the focus of the day although he might not notice. Anne would have to see once he arrived. Even after his retirement from The Daily Herald, FW’s mind had remained sharp for years, thanks to endless Sudoku and little network television....

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“No More Secrets” by John Schaal

Submitted to Contest #2

No More Secrets Boarding the bus with only one lightly filled suitcase MaryAnn counted the steps to the driver; there were two. Anything to keep her mind busy, she reminded herself. MaryAnn...

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“PAST OF DESIRE” by Hampi Medhi

Submitted to Contest #2

I belong to a middle-class family of Kolkata, yet my wedding is taking place in Chunda Palace, Udaipur only because of Dad's college friend Aditya Rathore, who belongs to a very rich family of Kolkata insisted to host a destination wedding for me because he wanted to feel how the responsibility of marrying a daughter feels as because they have no children of their own. The guests already started arriving. The ritual will begin tomorrow: Mehendi, Sangeet, Haldi and then the wedding. Chunda Palace is a beautiful palatial hotel offering mountai...

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“Dillon's Dilemma” by Christine Hungerford

Submitted to Contest #2

Who is this man? Well, his name is Dillon Pickles. He doesn’t know where to turn. Because of what happened with a kid, a river and a decision that hurled Dillon right into the waters of depression… The man was sitting on one of his living room so...

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“Rose and Leo” by Rayven Fuller

Submitted to Contest #2

Regret. Feelings of shame and sorrow immerse my soul. Every day is continuous loop of despair and failure. I often reminisce of simpler times, when regret was non-existent and grief was only a word. Now, it is a feeling that gropes me to my core. I spend most days living in the shadows, hiding from the scorching light that is the truth, wishing I could somehow alter the past and reverse my horrendous actions. Nostalgia lingers in the back of my consciousness, diminishing any sense of hope or bliss. Leaving the house is difficult, as fear is ...

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“We Might Have Been Brothers” by Esther Eckermann

Submitted to Contest #2

Trent It’s cold.And I want to get outOf this darn place. I’m not sureHow I’ll leaveBecause after allI’m justAn unemployed kidWho hatesPretty Much everything.I’m sittingHere in my dark roomWith the blindsShut and The light off.Thinking and wonderingHow I could leave.My foster familyWouldn’t care.Wouldn’t care that I’m gone.My foster brotherLukasTold me they didn’t Want me anywaySo why would they care ifThey woke up and I was Not there?They wouldn’t.I wouldn’t.But I can’t do it By myself.After all, two isBetter than one. Wait, I know.I know wh...

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“We Need A Better Word” by Joe Dozier

Submitted to Contest #2

You hear the word “survivor” a lot these days. Someone survived cancer. Someone survived a heart attack. Someone survived a stroke. I do not like the word. When I hear that someone “survived”, I think of a car crash, or a plane crash. When my life crashed, survival was the last thing on my mind. When I hear that someone “survived” abuse, I think of a broken person, struggling to face...

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“The Line at the Bus Station” by Julian Woodruff

Submitted to Contest #2

With mounting disgust Ernie eyed the printout of “In the Fog on Mount Tam.” The spark that had taken him eighteen lines into the poem the night before, and then died, had not been rekindled, as the continuation clearly showed. He opened “The Infinite Island,” started soon after Cathy, Eric and Annie in arm, had told him with ingratiating directness to be gone. He had laid it aside as woundedness and confusion suppressed invention. No magic, no thread, certainly no rope could he find by which to climb back into that one. He closed it dejected...

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“Moving West” by Kevin Barkman

Submitted to Contest #2

The sky shone fluorescent blue like the gleaming of the sun off the boy’s eyes. His mind paced over the patterns of life that led him to this point; Pitter pattering over the most inconsequential moments in his past. The placid sea of green ran off before him pausing only to shoot the occasional tree up towards the sun. Into the future a little road -barely a path-forced its way into the motionless world of green. The boy, named Elijah, after that pillar of Christian faith- a stranger who stood in the face of society to proclaim ...

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“Assassination on Gore” by Jackson Manley

Submitted to Contest #2

I woke up earlier than normal, despite being off from work. This horrible flu had gotten to me, making my body week and my brain incapable of fulfilling my position at the auto shop. It had been a fight, but my boss had eventually noticed the stream of snot leaking from my nose.The digital clock on my bedside read a quarter past four in the morning. I groaned, letting myself fall back onto the thin layer of memory foam covering my mattress. Something struck my left shoulder blade, catching me off guard. I cussed under my breath, my hand goin...

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“Plan B ” by Vanessa Sibanda

Submitted to Contest #2

"Leave ," the man grunted with displeasure .She knew her cue and didn't need to be told. It wasn't as though she enjoyed being with him anyway . "My pay ?" She asked as she picked up her bag simultaneously slipping on her shoes . He threw her a couple hundred bills. She stared down at them then gave him a questioning glare . He grunted then threw a couple more . She grabbed it shoving it in her purse and swung on her heel to leave. She flipped her hair onto one shoulder , straightened her back then sighed . Might as well leave with dignity...

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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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