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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#5: Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea was published for the first time in Life Magazine on September 1st, 1952. The story went on to win the Pulitzer Prize the following year, turning Hemingway into a bonafide international celebrity. And remember, this story was published decades after some of his now most famous works, like A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bells Tolls. A good reminder that it's never too late to achieve literary acclaim!

To celebrate the last full-length work published during Hemingway's lifetime, this week's prompts reflect topics and themes from some of his best-known works. (No need to have read any of Hemingway's books to use these prompts, but if you're looking to get better acquainted with his works, check out this Hemingway reading guide!)

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone who finds life meaning in an unexpected place.

Fiction – 34 stories

Write a story about two unlikely people falling in love.

Romance – 40 stories

Write a story about someone who decides to confront their fears head-on.

Character – 35 stories

Write a story about someone striving for a "comeback."

Adventure – 11 stories

Write a story about someone who is tired of their day-to-day routines.

Sad – 36 stories

Stories

“Up and Down” by Nemo Artist

Submitted to Contest #5

Wake up. Shower. Get dressed. Down an elevator. Jack had always wanted to live and work in the same building, so when an apartment became available in the building next door to the building he worked in, well, he had to jump at the opportunity. Pick up a taco and a coffee from the cute vendor in the lobby. Every day he would flirt, every day the cold shoulder. But warm taco and hot coffee. Up another elevator.Through the side door - so no one notices.Pull out chair.Sit down.Fire up the computer.Work is pretty much a ...

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“The Collector” by Kristina Deyo

Submitted to Contest #5

Some people collect CDs or crowd their living rooms with antique furniture. Some have coins from all 50 states or a stamp from every country. Others have stacks of classical books, a rock from every beach they’ve ever visited perched on a windowsill. My collection is a little more unorthodox. I collect souls.I make my way through the airport terminal, debris crunching under my heels as the vague humanoid forms shimmer, like wisps of smoke, beyond the fog that separates this world from the living one. The other side seems frozen in time, but ...

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“Today I Saw a Cheeseburger” by Chelsea Corby

Submitted to Contest #5

I lived three lifetimes in the span of two short minutes. My brain went breakneck speed through the fog of all the familiar milestones—birth, walking, talking, graduation, marriage. I was nearly dizzy as I stood there staring blankly ahead, my mind processing the complete production of life from birth to death. All because of a cheeseburger. All because I wanted wh...

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“Being a Little Bear” by Walt Landers

Submitted to Contest #5

It seems like I’ve been out for a long time. I must have been really tired. What did I do last night? I have no memory of it, at all. I am trying to think, as my consciousness struggles to be awake. Now I can feel movement around me, like when Bruno would hop up on my bed. Bruno has been dead for a while. I try to open my peepers . I feel around me and my hand doesn’t feel right. What did I do? It doesn’t hurt, just does not feel right. I try to push myself up and look around, but I seem...

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“Finding Her Reason” by Sandra Lester

Submitted to Contest #5

When Ellie Pearson's parents passed away, they left her the cabin in the rich forest of New Hampshire. Periodically, she would go there for a "short retreat from the rest of the world," is how she'd put it when she told people where she was going. She loved the silence of the forest that surrounded the quaint little cabin. To bring anyone to the cabin felt like an invasion on her solitude. When she would go there, she rarely ventured away from the cabin, unless she was staying for a week. The rest of the ...

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“Coffee Shop Table” by Meghan Newsome

Submitted to Contest #5

Both of my hands held a white mug that was filled with plain, black coffee. I held it right underneath my nose, the strong smell invading my nostrils. I loved the smell, and I loved the tiny little coffee shop I was relaxing in. I liked to often switch tables in the shop; mostly because I get to experience the different views, but sometimes because that tables were being used.Today I was setting in a booth that I had never really sat in. It was placed in a very dim corner, isolated from the windows, and just very lonely. Other than my coffee...

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“The never ending dock” by Summer Deroes

Submitted to Contest #5

If there was one show on Netflix to explain my life it would be "a series of unfortunate events" "Why" you may ask? Well you'll see...It all started when I was about 7 and could somewhat understand things... My parents have been fighting my whole life well until they decided to not be my parents they put me into foster care on the day of my birthday... what a great present I have always felt alone in this world constantly getting put into homes and not even lasting 3 months.By age 14 I completely gave up on having a family so I made up rules...

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“Reflections on Hemingway's short story, "A Way You'll Never Be".” by William Vourlas

Submitted to Contest #5

Mr. Patterson glowered and yet also glinted at us.Us, the bright shiny faces of his English Lit class at Wayland Academy. It is winter, 1976 in the Kettle Moraine country of central Wisconsin. My hair is frozen, having showered late and trudged across the ice snow to a distant classroom. I anticipate drama."Pitter Pat" always had a flair for the dramatic, and today's lecture was no different. Our teacher knew his craft, understood how to create a stage for setting a story. His brief scholarly time could be mesmerizing or droll, depending on ...

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“Rose Among The Thorns” by Taylor Fox

Submitted to Contest #5

Living in this society, at finest is never a complete and utter bore. We strive to obtain our freedom and immunity yet we fail time and time again. Our community is full of apathies and shallow minded cretins who fail to see our true colors. I could feel myself slipping again, further and further into the abyss, the sounds awakening me, sending me into the excruciating pain that is everyday life. Imagine being so terrified, not even safe in your own home but isolated, trapped. Hooligans and delinquents roaming around yo...

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“The Archangel” by John Matthews

Submitted to Contest #5

All that could be heard was the nighttime hustle and bustle of car engines and the friction of tires against cement from above. Michael led the boy off of the sidewalk up the ramp towards the abutment that held the bridge up. There lied a man.“Who is this?” shrugged the boy.“Look closer” Michael insisted.The young man’s eyes widened in shock. He began to angrily strike the man.“That bitch!” he screamed. As he tried to batter the man, his hand and foot did not harm the man but instead phased through him. The boy looked at Michael in disbelief...

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“One and Only” by Loan Le

Submitted to Contest #5

The Dennings family moved into our cul-de-sac back in July, but we rarely see them. There was a tall, gangly boy about my age, who must go to private school because the only times I’d seen him outside, he was dressed real formal. His father was a burly guy with a thick beard, like a wild creature that somehow wandered into suburbia. I thought the wife would be a wild card, but she actually looked like the other mothers in the neighborhood. Even while pregnant, she was petite, so petite that I knew she would attract only jealousy from the omn...

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“The Last Blue Sky” by Arisah Wood

Submitted to Contest #5

Today, the sky was blue and Hyacinthius was smiling. Thamyras was pleasantly surprised to see this. For years, Hyacinthius had snuck out to the valley. He wasn’t supposed to leave the borders of the village now that he was ‘the chosen one’ and being trained to be the next shaman. But he still managed to slip away on occasion while those at the temple thought he was locked in his room to meditate. For years, Hyacinthius would come out to the valley ...

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“Little Coins” by Amy Wannenburgh

Submitted to Contest #5

Alice had seen many men come through her door. She had learnt to read them, just as she had learnt to detach her mind from her body and what was being done to it. She’d learnt when to lead, when to guide, and when to stay silent. She was never just Alice – she was a fantasy, she was whatever the man in front of her wanted to be. Most importantly, she’d learnt to live for the money Miss. Lison handed out each morning. It kept her alive. It was all that mattered. It had to be. She worked at night, at Miss. Lison’s “parlour” as it was call...

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“No Stranger” by Chloe Smalley

Submitted to Contest #5

We met at a bus stop. You offered me a cigarette and I thought it was funny. Not many people smoke those nowadays. You said you had always been a sucker for the old fashioned, and I could see that in your eyes. It was like your pupils were black holes, pulling all the light of your irises into their swirling destruction. You had your headphones wrapped around your neck like a shawl, and I could see what you were listening to when your phone lit up. Bob Dylan. A classic. You really were old fashioned. You asked where I was going, and I ...

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“They are my new meaning” by Sabrina Costilla

Submitted to Contest #5

The last thing I can remember was the blade of my enemy piercing through my armor, striking deep into my chest; the pain was agonizingly unbearable, it lasted for what felt like many tormenting hours until the black cloud of death took over. When I awoke it was chaos every which way, I turned my head where I laid, things tearing at one another as the screech of madness can be heard from a far, it was so dark that even the white hue of the moon above did little to penetrate the ink black surroundings giving it a blue faded darkness. I c...

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$50

Prize money

156

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 06, 2019 EST

Won by Yves. ♙ 🏆

Title: World Got Smaller

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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