Set your story during polar night.

Posted in Winter on Jan 5, 2024

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✍️ 37 stories

“Let me tell ya ‘bout Cold” by John Howard Hatfield

Submitted to Contest #232

Let me tell ya ‘bout Cold Cold! You’re cold? Ya think this is cold? Let me tell ya ‘bout cold! So you think you know cold; well you don’t come close. I’m gonna tell you the facts ‘bout cold. As one might think, there are several kinds or degrees of cold: there’s cold, there’s colder, and then there’s COLD. But there is a degree of cold that goes where no other cold has been. I have seen, felt and survived it, I want you to know. Survived them all at one time or another. So just hang in there and I’ll tell you all ya need to know. ...

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“The Ecstasy of Ice” by Dana Rodney

Submitted to Contest #232

The Ecstasy of Ice Nanuk shuffled away as the chopper’s blades receded. When she was a safe distance away, she slowed to a walk, swaying her powerful head and keeping her nose to the ground. She smelled things before she saw them. She could smell a seal on the ice from twenty miles away. She had the keenest nose of any creature on earth but she was far from the fastest; running any farther than a few hundred yards overheated her. Four inches of blubber and a dense double coat made the icy Beaufort Sea her bathtub, but her core temperature ...

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“An Arctic deal” by Rikki Club

Submitted to Contest #232

I was walking through the Antarctic polar night with a pick axe and a backpack full of needs. I was on my way to collect some more ice samples for the winter season and I wanted a last sample of the blue historical ice in the last day of the polar night in Antarctica. I wanted to see if I can find anything then a simple clear ice with frozen insects or dirt in them. I wanted to find something amazing! A discovery that could be legendary. Something to find and to profit out of for my little sister’s medicine. I heard that they p...

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“Whistlin Boreas” by Jennifer Newton

Submitted to Contest #232

A fogged eye hung high above the snowy archipelago, for once its vision crystal clear with nary a cloud in sight. The sea surrounding reflected countless lights, spiraling galactic arms which played home to Earth. And in a flash, they were gone, as a bright flood lamp stole away the stars.The crunch of ice turned to the deep thuds upon preserved concrete. Boreal winds sang through the unearthed structures, stripped bare by calamity and clocks. From the dark strode a figure, taller and larger than any human man, one who struggled to fit throu...

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“Nothing” by Vincent Paiement Désilets

Submitted to Contest #232

Polar bear or snow gust? I play that game every time something moves in the distance. I take off my sunglasses and expose my eyes to snow blindness as I try to focus. Until a shape detaches itself from the barren, obscenely white landscape. Heart rate goes up. My hand tightens on my rifle, ready to send a warning shot. I both hope and dread it’s a bear. I’m either about to face the biggest challenge of my life...

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“No Roads to Nome” by Michael Campbell

Submitted to Contest #232

Just 150 miles east of Siberia is the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, so far north that for a large part of the year the sea freezes over and the sun barely peeks past the horizon. A hundred years ago dogsled was the primary means of transport and communication, able to carry 500kg of freight, they delivered the mail, the groceries, the preacher, and hauled out gold and furs all the way to Anchorage. Scott Bone, Alaska's governor at the time said "No one understands Alaska. [Officials in Washington] wire me to step over to Nome to look up ...

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“Me Epiphany” by Ralph Emery Barhydt

Submitted to Contest #232

It’s been a long time since I was born and I have been thinking a lot about that life I have lived.There are some issues. I received an invitation to attend a self-reflective seminar all the way up in Alaska, Denali Lodge in fact. Sounded like a great idea. Denali, snow, isolation and focus. Maybe I would learn something. I’m going. I was late. My plane had been delayed at the Seattle International Airport for several hours and we arrived in Anchorage around 7:30—dead of winter. I rushed to the rental car counter and picked up a really nice...

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Set your story during polar night.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 37 stories

“Let me tell ya ‘bout Cold” by John Howard Hatfield

“The Ecstasy of Ice” by Dana Rodney

“An Arctic deal” by Rikki Club

“Whistlin Boreas” by Jennifer Newton

“Nothing” by Vincent Paiement Désilets

“No Roads to Nome” by Michael Campbell

“Me Epiphany” by Ralph Emery Barhydt

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story set in a world with a dying sun, or where light is a scarce resource.

Write a story about someone witnessing — or trying to witness — a celestial phenomenon.

Write a story about someone who has been tasked to keep a flame burning, surrounded by total darkness.

Write a story about someone looking for a sign in a dark sky.

Contest #232

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

106

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: