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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#223: Academia

A recent re-watch of Gilmore Girls has had me thinking about academic life — there’s something uniquely compelling in the combination of idolized institutions, tweed, the pursuit of knowledge, and thousands of young people all living in close quarters. I’m not alone: dark academia is an established genre by now.

This week, let’s step into the halls of ivy together — I’ve got academics, libraries, students, and exams in these prompts, so whether your imaginary life in the academy is dark, fantastical, suspenseful, or humorous, I hope you’ll find a prompt that feels right.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a student discovering a hidden room in a university library.

Mystery – 77 stories

Write about two rival academics pursuing the same grant.

Character – 14 stories

Write a story in which a jaded academic makes an unexpected, rash decision.

Angst – 41 stories

Write about a student reporter uncovering a university scandal.

Mystery – 22 stories

Set your story during exam season, when tensions run high and a minor incident sends your protagonist into a panic spiral.

Character – 30 stories

Stories

“The Earworm” by Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #223

“My angriness from sixth grade will scar my memory for life and I will be ashamed of my sixth grade year forever.” -The Night Stalker THE EARWORM Benjamin could never discover what it was exactly that made him cease to be an ordinary student. He knew that he was one once, as he and his classmates emerged from the long dark time of uncertainty that preceded his revelations. There wasn’t a single precocious learner am...

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“The Right Decision for a Student Who Would Fail” by Judy Tigay

Submitted to Contest #223

Winter was coming early. It was the first week in December and there was a chill in the air, and a dampness, too. Not a leaf was left on any tree, except of course, the conifers, and there was a scant, bare, skeletal look about the branches. And there was no sun. Dark, damp, gloomy, even in early afternoon, was the feeling felt by Professor Turnbull on that bleak Decempber day. Typical of winter in Whitehall, Minnesota, in late December, but not right after Thanksgiving. He was in a hurry as his class was starting in fifteen minutes....

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“Synchronicity” by Omar Scott

Submitted to Contest #223

Everything is random, until it isn’t. Chantey knows this all too well. That’s why she’s sitting alone in a diner with her brown eyes glued to the front door. Every minute she’s checking the time on her phone, and nervously tapping her feet. As she looked over her shoulder for the fourth time, she ran her fingers through her permed dark hair. Her nerves were so on edge, Chantey nearly jumped out her skin when the waitress said, hello. “Can I get you anything?” A young black wait...

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“Student M....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #223

"Oh, no!" Unfortunately for student M, he was growing up too fast. It was a fateful morning in time, some when. Mock exams, he was totally unprepared. He had not really been listening to his noble teachers, whatever they said. This morning, it was English, his worst. All he was really dreaming of was full on Nike casual wear, and expensive joggers, plus a brand new Adidas sports bag. That was if he ever escaped from school long enough to play his favorite sport again. Times were tough for seventeen year old lads. Not quite men, all he and hi...

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“Endings” by C Russell

Submitted to Contest #223

Lexi sighed deeply, gradually letting the air escape through her parted lips. A gentle whistle followed and suddenly she was snapped back to reality, turtling her head down and mouthing, “Sorry!” to the people on her left and right, where from her periphery, she could see the inevitable stink-eye being thrown in her direction. In her therapist’s office, it had been so effortless to close her eyes and breathe deeply while surrounded by overgrown house plants a...

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“Lost cause” by Murugesu Natkunathayalan

Submitted to Contest #223

Lost cause Where did I leave them? All my precious notes and textbooks with annotations, all the hard work I spent on them. Anger started creeping into my voice. There is only one place where I left it, and only one person who knows where I left it: Piper, my best friend. She could not have done this to me. I have known her all my life, and she can’t possibly do this, but she has a motive. We have been in what we like to call an academic war all our lives, both striving to be the best in everything from small end-of-topic tests to final exam...

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“The Ghost of the Carolina Rediviva” by Edward Roberts

Submitted to Contest #223

** This story contains mature language. ** Prologue I stood ten feet from a skeleton, laying face down with its bony fingers against the wall. My foggy brain could not recall their anatomical designation. The skeleton was covered in dust and stone debris so it must have been here a long time. I took small measured steps, then knelt down next to it. Putting down my badge, I used two hands to clear away some cobwebs and studied the bones. Had this person died a tragic death inside this wall? It was a haunting and tormenting scene. ...

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“Ishan And The Trusted Secret Circle Of Knowledge” by M.R. Simon

Submitted to Contest #223

Meet Ishan, a twenty-three-year-old alf Italian alf Indian Oxford student. He found by accident, that's what he thought, a secret room under the institution's library. The room is completely white, Floor to ceiling, wall to wall. A round white table has been carefully placed in the middle of this white, but not blinding, space with a book on it, a fairly old brown leather-covered book. There is no apparent light in the room, but it's lit. In this round room, there are two doors, one to come in and one to get out. The door that Ishan came fro...

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“Behind the Gold Door” by Alexandria Samuelson

Submitted to Contest #223

She hated attending this. She hated attending this school, honestly. Taking her place in her seat at the back of the room, she laid her notebook on the table before her and pulled the exceptionally large book from her bag. Physics 301: Quantum Physics. This class is probably the worst she has ever taken, and hopefully never will again. Once she informed her mother and father, she had no interest in being a physicist like them. Instead, she preferred the arts. Her dream was to be an English teacher. That just so happened to be the comple...

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“Touching Time” by Kristin Satterfield

Submitted to Contest #223

In the shadow of towering bookshelves and the silent watch of ancient texts, Rowan discovered the impossible—a room untouched by time in the heart of the university library. Hidden behind a row of forgotten dissertations on metaphysical anomalies, a thin crack revealed a sliver of darkness that beckoned with the allure of forbidden knowledge. Each day, Rowan traversed the library’s labyrinthine halls, the scent of aged paper and the soft shuffle of diligent research his only companions. The Sterling University Library was a fortress of lea...

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“Keep Reading” by Ian Gonzales

Submitted to Contest #223

What am I doing here? Sherry thought to herself, slotting yet another large, old book into its place on the scuffed metal shelf. With the squeak of rusty wheels, she pushed the cart a few feet farther down the aisle, paused to check her list, then hefted another heavy tome up onto the shelf. As she slid it into place, a puff of dust arose, billowing into her face. She backed away, coughing. This was awful, and totally not worth the extra credit toward her journalism major. Sherry paused in her work, catching her breath again, and looked aro...

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“Who ate Carl?” by Aditya Narain

Submitted to Contest #223

Carl's mother used to say, "Curiosity doesn't kill the cat. Instead, it becomes a superposition of various phases." No doubt she was a theoretical physicist, well versed in the quantum realms and the Holy Book of Principia Mathematica, but Carl only understood its meaning now.Or did he? Because till the end of the horizon, there was utter, complete darkness. Even the grim reaper would hesitate to merge with this opalescent void of nothingness. Maybe she was highlighting the probabilities of all possible outcomes he would take to navigate out...

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“The Onyx Mind” by Danielle Thompson

Submitted to Contest #223

Jessie had entered the university library under the pretense of work, but if she was being honest with herself, she had come to find a place to cry. The campus buzzed with the stress of year end exams, papers and projects, and on this particular evening it had boiled over and her eyes brimmed at the thought of her own incompetence. The old librarian glanced over her spectacles as Jessie hurried past the front desk, her backpack nearly knocking over a stack of fliers. She cast her eyes down, afraid to look at anyone, afraid her tears might be...

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“The Interrogation” by Arthur An

Submitted to Contest #223

Some unidentifiable insects have died on the LED bulb, the thoraxes and abdomens had disintegrated but the antennaed heads and wings remained security plastered on the single light fixture in the windowless room. Must be the only room in the entirety of Louisiana State University College of Medicine that’s not covered in degrees, diplomas, certificates, awards, and other proofs of life well lived, matted in tasteful pastel and framed in richly stained wood, gesticulating the subdue austerity suitable for learned scholarship, the youn...

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“Born of Fire. ” by Janice Jeffreys

Submitted to Contest #223

The air was thick with the stench of smoke and ash. Hagen coughed to relieve the ache in his lungs. With the back of his hand, he wiped the sweat coating his forehead and gazed at the smoldering blackness, feeling the weight of the forest's destruction bearing down on him. The kingdom he'd sworn to protect had suffered a brutal attack, jeopardizing the fragile peace between humans and his kind. The fire had wrapped every tree in blazing orange flames, and after hours of effort to extinguish it, the trees that had once risen tall and proud ...

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$250

Prize money

184

Contest entries

84

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 10, 2023 EST

Won by AnneMarie Miles 🏆

Title: Cerulean

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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