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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story in the form of a letter, or multiple letters back and forth.

Posted in Short Story on Aug 18, 2023

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 147 stories

“Kindly Disregard This Letter” by Chris Churilla

Submitted to Contest #212

Kindly Disregard This LetterMay 1Mom THIS CAMP SUCKS!!! IT’S A PRISON!!!!  As soon as we got here, they took away our phones and tablets! I remember Grandpa telling those stories from the old days—you know, the 80s—when Russians put their own people in prison. I think he called it a “gulag”. They told us technology was interfering with our appreciation of nature. What a load of bull! The other girls suck too. There’s one, Katie, who thinks she’s the GOAT just because she started wearing a bra. Big deal. The sooner she has to start weari...

2 comments 2
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“Immolant” by Lyle Closs

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Aunt Amelia and Uncle Harold You raised me to be open to new and different ideas, for which I am very grateful. I am mystified about how I should respond further to this person, if at all, and thought I would ask for your advice. I have received the letters from a young woman I met at a party recently. She was attractive and exciting to be with, if a little overwhelming with excitement and enthusiasm. I have replied, as you can see, with, perhaps, diffidence and hesitance. What do you think? Should I continue the acquaintance or not? ...

4 comments 4
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“A Letter from a Dissatisfied Shangri-La Festival Attendee” by James Fritz

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Customer Relations, I am addressing this letter to your Customer Relations Team since (a) I am a customer and (b) our relationship is in hot water. Since your company took down its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest, and TikTok, you have left me no choice but to write a physical letter. And even though I’m from Gen Z, I know how to address an envelope. I recently had the misfortune of attending the first-ever Shangri-La Festival in the Bahamas. From the moment ...

2 comments 2
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“Ambition” by Vincent Jessop

Submitted to Contest #212

Ambition By: Vincent JessopAugust 22nd.Letter 1:To my beloved Theanin, Theanin, I write to you in the darkest corner of my mind, for it is where I find myself in these daunting times. The thought of you and our son’s illness is what drives me to continue my hunt for the Tome.  My search has led me to the great city of Rimisa, the capital of Bellator. The tales of the impenetrable walls of Rimisia do them little justice. Their grand spectacle shines brighter than the ambition of her people, whose personalities are more stubborn than...

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“Godless Sinners” by Eridian Prenowitz

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Delaney, You spoke last of an overwhelming urge to run away. Those specific words you wrote struck a chord in me, and reminded me of something. I went to my library and searched for a book, where the word ‘drapetomania’ is used. I then searched up the meaning of the word in my dictionary. It describes the feeling you spoke of to me in your letter. I cannot say that I outright support you running away, though I understand why you want to. To run. Freedom, at last. It’s our life, it’s our turn to make the calls, after all. I understand y...

1 comment 1
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“Letters to Avery” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #212

           Slowly, she removed the polished wooden box that was tucked away on the shelf in her bedroom closet. Marks from her fingers were left in the thin layer of dust that had settled upon the box in the months since she last had it out. Carefully, Avery removed a stack of envelopes which were neatly stacked within the box. Beginning with the envelope on top, she opened it up and began to read. January 10, 2021 Dearest Granddaughter,        &...

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“Lettert to Daisy” by Hayley Chau

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Daisy, You fell to the floor. I was so scared. Your friends were so scared.  Some people stopped to help you but others continued dancing. Luckily, someone started performing CPR on you. What took seconds felt like an eternity for you to wake up. When you did, the pupils in your eyes were so wide and big. I didn’t recognize the girl in front of me. But then, without warning, you stood up and started dancing as if nothing had happened.  And so did everyone else.  It was the  first night of Spring Break and you and ...

4 comments 4
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“A Haunted House” by Danielle Barr

Submitted to Contest #212

My beloved Antonin- I scarcely eke out the dash, smudging the ink as I do, my hands are trembling so hard. I set down the fountain pen, the only sound in the dark house the clacking of its metal clip against the scarred wooden desktop, and shake both hands back and forth, then massage my fingers, palms, and wrists- as if these tremors are just some byproduct of my age, or of fatigue, that I can rub away. Oh that I could rub this all away! I gasp at the thought of it. Your name on the parchment is like a siren, pulling my attention t...

1 comment 1
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“The garden of our Valentine” by Danitza Eterovic

Submitted to Contest #212

Santiago, 14 February My dear Butterfly,We knew it was true love when that ladybug reached our holding hands the day we first met. It happened when the sun was shining in the highest of the sky. I had already studied for my Bar exam, so I was eager to enjoy the little spare time I could afford. You were finishing college too, do you remember? Who would predict that the end of our professional education would concur with our relationship bursting like the Big Bang?I remember those October evenings when eating our ice-creams ghosts in the...

4 comments 4
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“Secret Letter” by Mira Hikari

Submitted to Contest #212

Aprilis 10th, 2155 45 District B, Centrum, Domesticus Dear Chloe, If you're reading this, it only means one thing. I'm dead. My death might resemble an accident or suicide. I'm writing this to tell you it most probably isn't.  I don't know where to begin. I feel so bad hiding all this from you. I wish I could have told you the truth from the start. I can't imagine how you would feel when you discover all this after I'm gone.  I carry this heavy burden on my chest everyday. Evey conversation we have. Everytime I look in your eye...

1 comment 1
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“My Mistake” by LeQuitta Randolph

Submitted to Contest #212

I doubt you'll open this letter, once you see my name attached, but if you do open it and read it like I hope, even if you choose not to forgive me, maybe you'll have a better understanding of me. I don't want you to pity me, and I'm not writing to fuel you with excuses for my actions. I take full responsibility for what I did and how it has effected you. Although I could never understand your pain, because I have never been on the receiving end of the pain that I caused you, I am not without pain. My mother was a mean woman, not at first...

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“You Never Answered” by Richard Morris

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Annabel Lee,  Thank you for responding to my inquiry. As I said, I found you on social media and sent you a note to ask if that Annabel Lee was the same person I knew. I had sent a similar message occasionally when I encountered your name ever since there was social media. It took so many years for you to answer my pleas. Decades. Six of them. So much lost. You never answered. I was 17. You were 16, seven months younger. Sixty years ago, when you turned your face to the sun, the shadows fell behind you. You won my soul. I ...

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“Dear Vincent” by Billie JP

Submitted to Contest #212

[Warnings: Implied substance abused, implied violence, implied child abandonment, death] Dear Vincent, I can’t help you. It took me years to come to come to grips with the cold hard truth that, as much as it pains me, I cannot help you. I have tried, and tried, and tried, but it has gotten us nowhere. It’s like we’re both out at sea, treading water, and I’m throwing you every single life preserver I find, but you keep throwing them away. So I’m done. But you know that, don’t you? You’ve known that since the last time I spoke with you...

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“Dear Oprah,” by Jamie Zerndt

Submitted to Contest #212

Dear Oprah,             First off, let me say that this is a little awkward for me. I was watching the show where you put out a call for participants in your latest make-over contest when I had a revelation. Your words seemed to glow and beseech. Oprah understands, your eyes said, that a make-over can be metaphysical as well as physical. How can I say this? Oprah, I want to Botox my soul. Silicone my heart. Nip and tuck my very being.         &nbs...

1 comment 1
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“The Crick, The Crack, and The Cord” by Kailey Brianne

Submitted to Contest #212

Danny and I were sitting across from each other at the dining room table, typing away, occasionally looking up at each other to see if the other one was stuck. I could feel it every time he looked at me. I’d deliberately keep typing, even if knowing he was watching made the words harder to reach. I’d just keep typing up whatever random words came to my head, or I’d type out, I’m typing, I’m typing, I’m typing all the words so Danny doesn’t know my brain has momentarily paused its creative capabilities.  We’d made a bet—well, really, I ...

2 comments 2
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