Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a librarian that doesn’t fit into the common librarian stereotypes.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 62 stories

“This Is A Library” by Zi Poromon

Submitted to Contest #142

How could I ever pass up the opportunity to help my mothers’ best friends’ colleagues’ aunty run her library, while she heads to Vegas to spend her divorce settlement money on overpriced liquor and, I’m sure, at Chippendales. Mummy was thrilled that I finally had something to do for my gap year. I told her not worry and that I would find a job on my own, but as my mother is, she went on a worldwide search to help me. My love for libraries runs so deep that I even spent every lunch hour in elementary school with Mrs. Keller. She always s...

4 comments 4
Read story

“The Swordsman and the Witch.” by Neyshalie Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #142

“Rockridge librarian is evil.” “I heard she feeds off of children’s joy.” “She has evil eyes!” “Sharp teeth are all I saw when I first saw her.” “Everyone stays away from Rockridge library on Saturdays. Except the adults…” “I heard that she was a witch once, before arriving at Rockridge.” These were the whispered rumors I heard the summer before second grade. And every single one of them terrified me. *** “Michael! We’re about to head out to the library!” My mom’s voice echoes up the stairs, through the corridor and into my bedroom. At le...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Due Date” by Natalie Mars

Submitted to Contest #142

Five long years, he thought as the book crossed the counter into his hands. Moments before, his inked stamp poised above the date slip more out of reflex than anything else. He put down the stamp and turned over the book. The peeling, yellowed cover read, The History of Northbrook and its Founders by R. Camden Hughes. He’d waited a long time for the signal. Jackson pulled the card out of the back and stamped a date ten days in the future. He scrutinized the man in front of him. The small, bespeckled thirty-something-year-old had a ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Mrs. Libro” by Lisa Naughton

Submitted to Contest #142

Mrs. Libro, in many ways, was born to be a librarian.  She was special, she knew everything about every book, even though she never read any of them.  Good Reads was her bible.  She surfed through daily, finding the best of every genre from Christian to classics, comics, even cookbooks.  Mrs. Libro memorized The Great American Read, all 100 of America’s most-loved books.  She was a walking, talking card catalog. However, Mrs. Libro was not a typical librarian.  She was loud, VERY LOUD, truck driver loud. ...

3 comments 3
Read story

“The Bird Catcher” by Ramona Scarborough

Submitted to Contest #142

Stories often give the impression that librarians are mousy and dull. However, as Michael checked out a stack of birding books, the woman at the reference desk reminded him of a pileated woodpecker he had seen once in Forest Park. He doubted she would appreciate being compared to that particular bird, but her hair blazed like the flame red bird’s crest he had glimpsed only once.  She spoke with a clipped foreign accent and when she smiled, his heart fluttered as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. He found the book he had been searching for...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Unseen Epilogue” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #142

                                             Unseen Epilogue             The final pages of the story of the librarian known as Mary McFee closed far more strangely than any of her colleages in the Rehobeth Beach Public Library ever would have imagined. &nbs...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Library Decision ” by Katie Wolters

Submitted to Contest #142

The Library Decision  Ricky chose two books out of the pile he had stacked in the library. He walked up to the librarian ready to check out his final decisions. The librarian, Suzie, was an ethereal woman with silver hair and an uninhibited yet soft spoken voice. Suzie took his books and swiped it across a pad, before she scanned them into the computer. Ricky didn’t know what the pad was for, but every time she did this he imagined that the device locked the words into the book, in case they wanted to float away once free from the lib...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Martha” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #142

Nothing is ever really silent in a library. Murmurs and whispers that float above the heads of people. Indistinct conversations, scratching of pens on papers, flicks of pages in books…  Martha worked in one such a library, for many years. Shushing those who broke the silence; breaking it herself, the whole room would turn icy cold, and the silence would resume. Everybody flipped their head back over their book and Martha returned her concentration to her chip cards, sitting almost invisible behind a bookshelf. She wasn´t the typical old...

2 comments 2
Read story

“I'm diMucci” by Colin Taylor

Submitted to Contest #142

 di’Mucci. Randell slumped on his bunk. Hands pressed to his ears. Noise was his constant companion. Orders were hurled and foul-mouthed, rarely compliant, responses, were masked in the clatter of cell doors opening and shutting, keys rattling and turning and endlessly marching, echoing feet. The bedlam drummed a constant rhythm into Randell’s brain. For a month, Randell had been the butt of every joke, defenceless against every thuggish bully. They thought it amusing to upend his cell furniture and tear to shreds his precious p...

2 comments 2
Read story

“My Librarian - My Love” by Glen Benison

Submitted to Contest #142

I was positioned in a knee-aching deep squat, searching for Gunter Grass on a low shelf, when the brilliance of two dark eyes appeared through an opening opposite me.            My fingers gripped the edge of The Tin Drum to pull it free just as the librarian, on the other side of the aisle, was slipping No Great Mischief into its proper slot.          She was sitting on a stool opposite me, in the M,N,O, aisle and I imagined her bare knees pr...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Big Bad Librarian?” by Jordan Tope

Submitted to Contest #142

Glossy green eyes looked up at the building in awed confusion. Cecilia was told it was the library she was looking for. But that couldn't be. This place looked more like a grand cathedral than a library. The young woman clutched a card to her chest and held on to her red hood as a strong wind arose. She was looking for something and had been told by her grandmother that she would find it here. Gathering her nerves, she stepped forward and headed towards the door. All the while, she made sure she kept her hood up, if she didn't, it would brea...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Beats and Stones” by Sabrina Semidei

Submitted to Contest #142

Cushie Jay wasn’t a bad girl. In fact, there wasn’t a soul in Hallymey Row who could testify to the contrary. And if you kept on driving all the way behind the hill, and stopped in Polton, odds are that no one there could either. Those two small villages, separated by a hollow vast valley everyone called The Bliss, had always been passionate rivals. It has been a tradition since as long as books can remember, that once in possession of a driving license, kids would drive through The Bliss and throw a personal belonging onto the respective to...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Redemption” by Mimi Wright

Submitted to Contest #142

My librarian called. She sounded worried, and a little angry. The book I had just returned had water damage, she announced, and because I had borrowed it through interlibrary loan from another library, she was embarrassed to send it on in this condition. I would have to retrieve the book and return it personally to the lending institution, a few miles away. She would keep it in the office behind the main desk for me to pick up. “I understand,” I said. “I’ll come and get it this afternoon.” She was right about the water damage. I ha...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Librarian's Announcement ” by Dee Leger

Submitted to Contest #142

Miri Anaan (pronounced Meeri Anon) has been my Librarian since I was a child. Her signature is on my first Library card. She has encouraged my love of reading since the very first book I borrowed. She is a striking woman, even now as she enters her Golden Years. Tall, trim, medium brown skin. Those that feel the need to be politically correct call her African American. She always laughs that off. A full hearty laugh, and says despite her admiration for that culture she isn't remotely African, some of the library patrons have asked her if ...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Less Like a Shadow” by L Killorin

Submitted to Contest #142

First Day of Spring | Yr. 3052 | Perduna The library closes early on festival days. The city of Perduna sighs and the pear trees sing in white blooms, perfuming streets where children blow rainbow bubbles and vendors throw spiced meat and peaches on sizzling grills. Even the Falcons, in their sharp-edged uniforms, watch the revelry with a softer eye.  The Seamstress walks through the streets. She tips a few coins into a donation basket. She chats with the woman with moss twisted in her hair, and buys a flaky pastry from the man in p...

0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone being given a book recommendation.

Middle School – 33 stories

Write about a character on the hunt to solve a mystery who uses their local library (or librarian) as a source of information.

Thriller and Suspense – 25 stories

Write a story that includes one character reading aloud to another.

Dialogue – 30 stories

Write about somebody who likes to work in silence.

Dialogue – 25 stories

Contest #142

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Librarian Love

$250

Prize money

175

Contest entries

129

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 22, 2022 EST

Won by Deidra Whitt Lovegren 🏆

Title: What You Can Do With Your Book

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢