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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#88: Fairy Tale Truths

Did you know that April 2nd marks Hans Christian Andersen’s 216th birthday? Andersen’s work has been adapted and reimagined so many times it's become part of our literary DNA. In fact, it's hard to imagine the world of fairy tales without them. And while some were based on old folklore, many sprang from his own imagination — sometimes even incorporating details of his life and using the genre's fantastical trappings to write parables about his experiences.

This week we invite you to use your stories to explore larger truths. Whether you set them in a magical fairy tale realm or not, stories are a wonderful way to examine important ideas. So sit back, reflect, and prepare to let your imagination run wild through the forest.

This week's prompts

Write a cautionary fable about someone who always lies.

Adults – 116 stories

Write a story about an ordinary person speaking truth to power.

Adults – 68 stories

Write about a prince or princess who is asked to give up something valuable as part of a deal to escape the world they come from.

Fantasy – 190 stories

Write a fairy tale about an outsider trying to fit in.

Kids – 173 stories

Write about an author famous for their fairy tale retellings.

Teens – 73 stories

Stories

“Hansel and Gretel in the 21st Century” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #88

The children were all sitting quietly in their seats, when their teacher came in with another woman whom they had never seen before. Their teacher spoke with her most formal voice and said: “Students, you are very fortunate today, because our special guest is Hilary Grimsby, the famous author of the children’s book Fairy Tales for Children of the Twenty-First Century. Please greet her with applause.” The children did so. Most of them have heard of the book and is author, but few had even tried to read it. The special guest ...

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“The Passing of the Quill” by Chris Culpepper

Submitted to Contest #88

No one is gonna believe this story, but I'll write it anyway. I was in the library doing some research for a story I was writing. My internet was down so I went there for the free Wi-Fi. Hadn't been inside of a brick-and-mortar library since the pandemic started. The first night I was there, I saw the ancient character hunched over in the corner and thought he was a homeless guy just getting in out of the cold. Boy, was I mistaken! Each night for the next several weeks, I'd see him there scribbling in an old notebook. That book looked abou...

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“Fortune Cookie” by Chris D

Submitted to Contest #88

It starts with a fortune cookie. Her struggle, not her habit. From the age of four, Sutton has been a chronic liar. It all started with a cookie jar. Her mother had told her no dessert until after dinner. They'd be having porkchops and broccoli. She hated porkchops and broccoli, and knew she would never make it through dinner to the chocolate chunk cookies in the cookie jar. "Is that chocolate on your face?" "No mama. Dirt from playing outdoors." Such an easy lie. One that her mother had believed. She'd ended up skipping dinner, telling her ...

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“Bruce never tells the truth” by Richard Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #88

I live in Texas and there is a saying in Texas. I rather climb a tree and tell you a lie than stand on the ground and tell you the truth. Most of my friend and family were good about making more of a story than was really there. With Bruce not even the story he was telling would be his own. Every one in town knew Bruce He was the guy who reused everybody stories and by the time you heard it again it was Bruce in the center of all the action. The one thing that Bruce could not make up was his height standing only 5 foot 4 inches and hundred t...

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“THE PARROT WHO SPILT THE BEANS” by Mousumi Biswas

Submitted to Contest #88

John lived with his wife Ema and pet dog Bruno. They were both very helpful and good at heart. All the neighbours loved and respected them. Bruno was the only companion they had , their children having moved to seek their own destinies. Bruno was a cute little dog with silken brown coat . One day the couple was playing in their garden with Bruno. Suddenly , Bruno sniffed hard and began to bark loudly. He ran to a spot under the oak tree and began circling it , jumping and wagging his tail ...

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“If Only He Listened” by Zoha Yasir

Submitted to Contest #88

You are perfect for being you. Believe in your uniqueness and talents. Is a hummingbird more perfect than an elephant? Perfect for what? Perfection is subjective, not objective. It is the same as a lock and key, the adventurer and the quest. So the only question you need to answer is that you are brave enough to walk your heaven-sent path? People can grow strong enough to whisper at the iron bars that hold them and see them bend out of their way like the craziest magic. That's what love can do: fix souls, fix brains, cure us all. Yet, some o...

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“Lin blew her lies...” by Lis Lovén

Submitted to Contest #88

Lin blew her lies… You talkin´ ´to me, hu? At that point Lin came up with an assumption, that British people were mighty high up. She, Lin that is, had no single clue at first of how to get rid of it. Rid off it, the problem itself? That Aristocratic lady, Mrs Willfear, was a nobility of seldom seen stardom. In Lin´s Sweden the hight and mighty came closer to being more pragmatic than lofty. So she had to face the issue in another turn of the screw. Heck it! Of course Picasso had it written down: ”Art is a lie that force you to see reality...

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“The Truth About Lies” by Anthony David M

Submitted to Contest #88

She smiled. She did a lot of it as she talked. She was always talking thirteen to the dozen and most of what she said was not true. Not that she cared anyway. She excelled in creating lies so realistically that no one suspected her of lying. Amara was her name, so she claimed. (Now I wonder whether...

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“Little Dark Wings” by Nuala Roberts

Submitted to Contest #88

I have never trusted unicorns. All they really are is horses with horns, that doesn't make them special. And horses are terrifying enough with the horn, have you see their teeth? You might find this odd. Unicorns are perfect. But that's the thing: nothing is perfect. So where's the catch? Dragons, serpents, brownies, you know their flaws. When you know flaws, you know what to expect. Unicorns, therefore, are dangerous, weaponized and unpredictable. Then one showed up at my door. I'm different. I always have been. If this were a fairy tale,...

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“THE KING'S HEIR” by K.K Ameyo

Submitted to Contest #88

Before he was revered, Mutongo was a farmhand, looking after his family’s sheep. Day in and day out, he would do his duty, not because he liked it, but because his father promised that he would take him hunting one day, and his mother would make him an extra portion of food every now and again. “Have you locked the sheep in?” his mother always asked. “Yes!” he would always answer when asked, after which he would be given his food to eat. One day, he was so hungry that he hurriedly took them back into their pen a bit earlier than usual. He no...

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“The Truth in DownTown” by Ana Perez

Submitted to Contest #88

My name is Delilah Bloom, and this is a story that should serve as a lesson to you all about lying. It’s something that you should under no circumstances do.I had a very ordinary life in DownTown. I helped my dad, Oliver Bloom, making bread and baking for his bakery, and I was in charge of delivering every day the king’s special bread order. I knew King Jeffrey and his son, Dylan very well, but I never liked him. He was always lying and stealing and was an unpleasant person. I used to have very bad luck, I would always trip, drop the bread o...

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“Wolf! Wolf! Shouted the Shepherd” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #88

Long long ago there was a big dark forest. The forest was so dark with its dense colony of huge trees and their wide canopy of leaves , almost touching each other so closely that even the poor sun rays had no access to enter the land. They danced only on the top leaves and left by evening. Even the proud moon passed over the forest with no clue of what was beneath the thick tree tops. The creatures that lived in this forest were almost semi blind like workers who worked in dingy glass bangle factory under ...

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“The mite and the chameleon” by Ana Lyn Soriano

Submitted to Contest #88

There was once a chameleon who befriended a neighboorhood of insects. Everyday, it came to the Insect village to entertain the young insects whose parents were away for food hunting."Would you like to see the color of the blue velvety sky today?", the chameleon asked."Show us, show us please?", the young insects cried in unison."Oh surely you have seen its colors when you go out each day", it replied to them."Yes we do, but since we are so tiny, we barely see it close enough.", one insect said."Yes that's true", the others agreed.And so the ...

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“The boy who almost stopped breathing” by Melo Hale

Submitted to Contest #88

Once there was a boy named Aaron. Aaron lived in a mansion with his parents. Mr and Mrs Saunders. They were of high rank in the social society because of their well-paying jobs. Their son, however, turned out to be a rotten and spoilt child. Aaron loved to lie and throw tantrums when things didn't go his way. Everybody knew that Aaron was not to be trusted. At 15, he already had a bad reputation. A troubled young man, people would say. When he was 5-years old, he stole chocolate and a drink from the shop. After being confronted about ...

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“In Truth” by E. B. Bullet

Submitted to Contest #88

From a young age, Tobias knew very well the power of language. His mother had shown him carefully with every storybook she pulled from their well-worn shelves, every sentence she weaved—her word placement endlessly methodical. They would sit by the lake, enwrapped by woody pine near the village, and she would say to him that one’s voice was a magic.“To speak is to bend the world to your will,” she would say. To Tobias, powerless and meek at the peak of age five, this was everything. Often was he witness to the way his mother’s words carried ...

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$50

Prize money

622

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 09, 2021 EST

Won by Shannon Ethel 🏆

Title: No More Happy Endings

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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