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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#261: Gratitude

Unfortunately, it's true what they say — all good things must come to an end! Today marks my last Friday at Reedsy, and my last week as the host of Prompts.

Before I get into this week's contest, I'd like to take a moment to thank this wonderful community, for sharing your creativity and enthusiasm with me over the past few years. I have been truly moved and inspired by your entries, and am consistently amazed by the talented, prolific writers who make up Prompts. It doesn't escape me how lucky I am to have read and enjoyed thousands of your stories, and to have been given a glimpse into the worlds of so many authors. It's been a great privilege.

With that in mind, this week's contest is all about gratitude. Whether your characters are thankful for a gift, a person, or a change in circumstance, I hope they find a way to express it.

You'll meet your wonderful new Prompts host Isabella next Friday; but for now, all that's left to say is — thank you!

This week's prompts

Write a story about a character trying to find a way to express their gratitude to someone.

Character – 62 stories

Write a creative nonfiction piece about something you're grateful for.

Nonfiction – 69 stories

Write a story about a cynic who has been told to start a "gratitude journal," and does so — begrudgingly.

Funny – 55 stories

Write a story about an unsung hero.

Character – 53 stories

Write a story in the form of a series of thank you cards.

Narrative – 64 stories

Stories

“Thanks for the Drugs” by Kay Badman

Submitted to Contest #261

This story contains sensitive language and themes.Thanks for the Drugs-K.To What My Generation Calls Adulting: Thank you for putting a name that acts both like a noun and a verb to what my life has officially become: adulting. Thank you for all the early mornings to just be in the office by nine, working behind a screen all day juggling many hats for a job I hate, and all the late nights that mean nothing besides my lack of a life. Thanks for the flexibility of needing to drop everything I love and enjoy to be who you want me to be but still...

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“The Demetriou Ruling” by Nick Physick

Submitted to Contest #261

Geoff Demetriou spat forcibly onto the tarmac and scuffed the phlegmy produce into the pavement with the sole of his boot. He unclipped his helmet and slung it onto the lawn, where it landed supine, rocking on its dome in the hopeless manner of an upturned turtle. His eyes were pink and swollen, his cheeks beneath streaked with some nondescript fluid. He rubbed his ribs, sorely noting at least two or three unnatural protrusions. Behind him, a crisp voice squawked robotically from the waist-held radios of several of his nearby colleagues.‘Two...

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“The Unsaid Gratitude” by Amanda-Rene' James

Submitted to Contest #261

Thank You Never Seems to be EnoughMaryann sat at her polished mahogany desk, her fingers tightly gripping the smooth barrel of a pen. Her wide blue eyes flicked back and forth between the blank piece of paper lying before her and the framed photo on her desk of her parents, Christopher and Margrette. She had been wanting to write this letter for weeks. But every time she tried, she found herself at a loss for words. How could she truly express her overflowing gratitude to them for all they had done for her? Their unwavering love, support, an...

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“Photograph” by Itay Frenkel

Submitted to Contest #261

I’m grateful to Linda for being there for me after her mom died. It probably should have been the other way around but I had loved her mom too. Besides, I was the last one to see her alive. We had a big art project coming up and most of the kids stayed back since Linda’s mom offered extra help after school. She was our art teacher. Linda herself went home early, saying that art was half talent and half pain and that it was a pain to stay back after school. Linda was a natural; her mind could see things clearly and her hands portrayed th...

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“Gifts of Gratitude” by Amaya D'Agostino

Submitted to Contest #261

Sage wasn't accustomed to receiving gifts. He was used to people holding out their hands and expecting things from him due to his truthful tongue which only made for toxic company. While some say his truth telling tongue was a blessing, he believed it to be an un-useful nuisance. He wasn't used to compliments, or people getting to know him, but he was especially not accustomed to gifts from Ruen. The High courts son was unbearable. Sage would rather die than actually have to thank an utterly disgustingly handsome being like Ruen...

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“Look Who's Here (nonfiction memoir)” by Mr. Vescovi

Submitted to Contest #261

Look Who’s Here Five years ago, I moved to San Francisco to help my sister care for our aging parents, specifically my father, who was suffering from dementia. After he passed, it was time to focus on our eighty-seven-year-old mother. His five-year battle with the debilitating disease had left the three of us feeling defeated and depleted. Helping my mother regain her mental and physical health loomed like hike up a Himalayan peak. And then something magical happened—the first of many mysterious gifts. Ironically, it was spurred by the COVID...

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“Regina” by Cassin Villa-Lobos

Submitted to Contest #261

"It's life's illusions I recall, I really don't know life at all." -Joni Mitchell Regret is a powerful emotion. It can eat you alive, even if it is over the smallest thing. Not having a witty retort to an insult. Not asking that person out. Not saying 'I love you' to the people who matter. I think as a society we could all be saying 'I love you' a little bit more often. Not in a frivolous way, but really saying it to people. Really letting them know how much we think about them in our daily lives. I recently lost someone who was very close t...

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“Smashing Through the Roadblocks” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #261

By confronting a personal health challenge I have broken down roadblocks and made my life far more interesting and fulfilling than I could ever have imagined. I am a 30-year veteran of the often imploding weekly newspaper industry in New Jersey and a retiree finding new excitement along an alternate route in fiction, non-fiction and science fiction authorship. The reason for my relative success stems from something that many would consid...

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“The Air in My Lungs” by Bri Crosson

Submitted to Contest #261

Being loved unconditionally is an incredibly marvelous experience. It’s, in fact, quite petrifying. Witnessing the raw vulnerability of another, of yourself…It’s horrifying and challenging. It’s solace. It’s a reminder that you feel safe with this living being, and they feel safe with you. In a world where judgment feels like a detrimental essential event in one’s life, being loved unconditionally is an escape—to flee the world's terrors with the one being who sees you for your unique individuality. Every day, I think of the one who’s made m...

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“Many Challenges, Countless Gratitude” by Marion Cohen

Submitted to Contest #261

Many Challenges, Countless Gratitude It was ten years ago, March 2014, that I happened to feel a small bump on my right breast. At first, I thought it was just a muscle, or a vein, or something else insignificant. Every few hours I checked, and as my fingers stroked that spot, I began to feel a bit more troubled. The next day, a Monday morning, I contacted my gynecologist’s office just to allay my fears, and have it checked out. Upon my docto...

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“Staring Right at Me! ” by María Barbieri

Submitted to Contest #261

We sometimes fail to understand the importance and value of being mentored by respected sources, whether a specific person or more than one. Those very leaders are often right in front of us and play a vital role in our lives yet we fail to notice. Youth is wonderful but the wisdom developed through the ageing process holds greater meaning. I had and have so much to be grateful for but sincerely failed to see the light until I reached my early fifties. I should conduct a survey on this topic in order to know the length of time it takes for t...

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“Playing Catch” by Rob Bergman

Submitted to Contest #261

Playing CatchAs American as the Fourth of July and mom’s apple pie is the action of playing catch.I recently bought a new glove. My old mitt is 35 years old at least, and when I took my son to purchase baseball pants for the upcoming season, for the first time ever, I stopped and tried on new gloves. I never felt the need before. My old trusty Rawlings Dale Murphy model fit my hand like a second skin. Every worn spot from the finger hole to the pocket, felt and smelt like home. The padding had worn out long ago, but my heat pen-branded initi...

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“Artistry in Rhythm.” by WM .

Submitted to Contest #261

There’s a bush. It holds my attention every time I open my blinds, always swaying in the direction of the wind. At dawn, when the Sun beams just right, you can see the little ecosystem that calls it home. The birds greet each other with elder songs, butterflies catch wind of their tune, and my four-footed friends find their tempo. Music to my ears and I have a front-row seat. Today was different, I woke up to silence. “That’s weird,” I say, checking my alarm. Maybe I’m up earlier than I thought, I look out the window and can see the reflecti...

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“THE PICKPOCKET AND THE GIGOLO” by Antoine Polgar

Submitted to Contest #261

THE PICKPOCKET AND THE GIGOLOON GRATITUDEAntoine J. PolgarGratitude is a virtue and ingratitude is a vice. The failure to accept misfortune out of gratitude for one’s good fortune is a kind of thievery. Gratitude is illustrated in parallel consolation scenes of the Robert Bresson film The Pickpocket and Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo. Even a loser like Michel, the pickpocket behind bars in Robert Bresson’s film The Pickpocket (1959) had the presence of mind to recognize his good fortune when Jeanne visits him in jail and he says “Oh, Jeanne...

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“A Life Entered Into” by Anna Killick

Submitted to Contest #261

2am is peaceful. 2am makes no demands. 2am is where if there is any energy to be had, it can be found. But 2am becomes 3am and then 4 am and soon you are looking at the sun poking it’s face through a chink in your curtains. Then you sleep. You sleep so that the day passes, and you don’t have to feel the pain of it. And when you wake, you eat three Weetbix and drink a cup of tea then try to sleep some more. Except your breakfast should be dinner and your dinner should be breakfast and you hardly see your beautiful, hard-working husband who tr...

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$250

Prize money

303

Contest entries

97

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 02, 2024 EST

Won by Sandrine Hu 🏆

Title: Dear Aunt Beth

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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