3170+ American Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking for great American short stories you can read for free? Whether they’re written by American authors, set in the USA, or just have that ever-elusive quality of Americana, this is the page you’re looking for.

🏆 Winning stories

“Hearts Are Trump” by Sarah Coury

🏆 Winner of Contest #246

Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t played cards together in years. If you want to get real technical about it, Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t even shared the same room in years, but that ain’t news to anyone east of Livernois. By now, the entire city of Detroit knows about Abraham and William Haddad—at least those who regularly stop into the family party store for their weekly supply of meats, spirits, and fresh-baked pita. It’s old news. Two bitter brothers broken up over a girl who left town anyway. It’s been ages and the aunties need fres...

31 likes 27 comments 27

Read story

“Multiple Choice” by Zack Powell

🏆 Winner of Contest #198

Okay class! Pop quiz. If you've been doing the readings, this should be a piece of cake. Remember to fill out both sides of this paper. You have the whole class period to finish. Good luck.1. Christopher Columbus first traveled to the Americas using which means of transportation?A) A cargo shipB) A steam locomotiveC) A Boeing 747 airliner D) A vintage red 1985 Camaro with a crack in the middle of the windshield and no heated seats2. What is the term...

238 likes 185 comments 185

Read story

“The Bullet that Esther Stopped” by Delbert Griffith

🏆 Winner of Contest #196

II shot papa square in the heart but he didn’t die. That damn bible he carried with him saved his life. I was considerable lucky that papa had his axe at hand, and that he kept it sharp. I picked it up. It was a heavy thing, so I swung with all my might and put it right through his head. Seein’ his brains made me throw up. I moved away so it wouldn’t get on papa. That would be disrespectful.Papa was a big man. I couldn’t bury him like that, so I started choppin’ off his arms and legs ...

161 likes 210 comments 210

Read story

⭐️ Recommended stories

“Mike Buford's Last Life” by AR R

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #246

I’m standing on the corner of 48th and 8th outside of Duffy’s Ale House, waiting for Buford to light a cigarette, knowing that, like most things he attempts, eventually he’ll succeed. But it won’t be easy. Not because it’s complicated, but because Buford complicates the uncomplicated. He creates pitfalls and snags and obstacles if only because Buford won’t attempt anything unless it’s handled like one exhaustive, endless, mind-numbing game.“You have to fuck them to win, Muck,” Buford says, cigarette dangling from his rubbery lips. And they a...

9 likes 5 comments 5

Read story

“Polar Night” by Nick Baldino

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #227

“Give me that thing” Chunhui grabs the cigarette from Bobby’s hand. There is a moment where their fingers touch, the warmest feeling in Alaska’s Northern Slope, and then it is gone. “No need to get handsy,” Bobby says to her. His voice is a dead whisper against the sweeping brown coastline, but she can hear him. They’re sitting shoulder to shoulder on the dried-out vertebrae of a bow...

17 likes 6 comments 6

Read story

“Influence” by Nikki Blake

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #226

Thanksgiving dinner has ended in bloodshed the past two years running, so when my sister Claire requested that we wear red for the big family photo, I applauded her ingenuity. If someone bleeds, it’ll blend in and we can just power through as if nothing happened. How genius!  Although her career choice is not one I would choose for myself, I admire her determination. She is not going to let anything derail her holiday c...

20 likes 16 comments 16

Read story

Introducing Prompted, a new magazine written by you!

🏆 Featuring 12 prize-winning stories from our community. Download it now for FREE.

Download

✍️ All stories

“The Politics of Duck-Duck-Goose” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #246

Blue sky with barely any wisps of cloud stretches above me. But it doesn’t stretch forever. There are hills where I live, always going up and down. And on almost all of those hills, there are trees. So if you get to a place where there aren’t any buildings in the way of your eyes, you won’t see a horizon. You’ll see hills and trees. A field where we can play is never flat. There’s always a little slope, if not a big one. Go far enough in a straight line, and you’ll have to walk either up or down a hill, even a little one. The summe...

5 likes 2 comments 2

Read story

“Mike Buford's Last Life” by AR R

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #246

I’m standing on the corner of 48th and 8th outside of Duffy’s Ale House, waiting for Buford to light a cigarette, knowing that, like most things he attempts, eventually he’ll succeed. But it won’t be easy. Not because it’s complicated, but because Buford complicates the uncomplicated. He creates pitfalls and snags and obstacles if only because Buford won’t attempt anything unless it’s handled like one exhaustive, endless, mind-numbing game.“You have to fuck them to win, Muck,” Buford says, cigarette dangling from his rubbery lips. And they a...

9 likes 5 comments 5

Read story

“Occupational Games: Blasted (To Twenty-Five Years Ago)” by Éan Bird

Submitted to Contest #246

OPENING CEREMONIES:A large red ribbon, severed in half, lays on the ground in front of a sleek, modern edifice. Young girls in fresh make up and short uniforms, with taut bows, form two parallel lines in front of wide open glass doors. They shout hellos as people saddled with bags traverse between them. A woman entering the building beside me points to my espadrille wedges, “You did not wear running shoes.”“Why would I?”“For the drill.”“The drill?”The woman side-eyes me and turns to a young girl with shellacked dark hair, “Oh my! How spirite...

6 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“Clouds from Both Sides Now” by Nick Baldino

Submitted to Contest #246

Mary Beth likes the feeling of everything nowadays. Her head has found a home in the crux of her boyfriend’s collarbone, and her new tennis shoes are just the right size, and the sky is open and blue as a robin’s egg. A blade of grass tickles the back of her neck as she traces a finger up above. “It’s a beautiful day,” she whispers. “Not as beautiful as you,” Farley tells her. He moves his hand from her waist to her breast. She is just sweet enough and just dumb enough to believe him. Mary Beth scoots her head up and looks at him. He has a...

12 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Hearts Are Trump” by Sarah Coury

🏆 Winner of Contest #246

Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t played cards together in years. If you want to get real technical about it, Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t even shared the same room in years, but that ain’t news to anyone east of Livernois. By now, the entire city of Detroit knows about Abraham and William Haddad—at least those who regularly stop into the family party store for their weekly supply of meats, spirits, and fresh-baked pita. It’s old news. Two bitter brothers broken up over a girl who left town anyway. It’s been ages and the aunties need fres...

31 likes 27 comments 27

Read story

““Scales of a Surgeon”” by Brandon Cratch

Submitted to Contest #246

In the hushed corridors of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, where the air was thick with the scent of antiseptic mingled with quiet hopes, Dr. Alex Freeman was a burst of unexpected laughter. As a pediatric surgeon, his presence was like a ray of sunshine in the often-somber environment. His scrubs, festooned with cartoon characters, and his stethoscope, which he called “Mr. Whiskers,” rarely failed to draw a smile from his young patients. Alex had grown up as the only child of two renowned surgeons. From a young age, he was steeped in an atm...

6 likes 4 comments 4

Read story

“Ohio” by Gregory Wright

Submitted to Contest #246

Reaching the interchange on the interstate, she pulled off at the exit then loosely held the steering wheel as the car rolled into a filling station at the end of the ramp. She didn’t pull into the pumps, but instead pulled along the curb behind the station by the trash dumpsters. She silently sat there in the car, the engine running smoothly patiently waiting for instructions on what to do next.          She reached into her purse which had been thrown haphazardly at the foot of the passenger sea...

6 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Playground” by Shawna Burge

Submitted to Contest #246

PLAYGROUNDBy Andy Pearson © 2024 Their lips came apart slowly. Each molecule gripping tightly to its opposite.  When they finally, reluctantly separated, they were just apart. Opening their eyes,  both wondered, did this just happen? He leaned back with his hands on the two chains holding the flexible seat under her. She gripped the links under his hands and looked up. Looking at his happy, confused face, she arched back and swung slightly toward him. Releasing his grip, he stepped back and pushed on her extended feet s...

6 likes 3 comments 3

Read story

“Vicky” by Mark Ready

Submitted to Contest #246

Vicky Tim grabbed the chains holding the swing's sling seat to the framework of galvanized poles and tried to decide how to hang himself from it. His grandma said, "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never harm you." She was wrong. Words hurt. If he were like Mr. Spock on Star Trek, people could say all the mean things they wanted because Vulcans didn't have emotions. But he wasn't Spock. He pictured the other kids finding his dead body when they came out for recess. Maybe then they would realize they should have been ni...

5 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Giant under the Oak Tree” by Spencer Robinson

Submitted to Contest #246

He's Lumbering, shaking the soil of the earth beneath his paws, making his way over to his favorite Oak tree, a loyal friend throughout the years. But he is breathing heavier than he used to, he's not as fast in these advanced years, and his head is weighed down more than usual, and the walk is taking much longer than he remembers it taking him. Even though the sun felt just as nice on his back he could feel it in his bones that today is different. Nowadays his legs weren't what they used to be, and his size didn't make it any easier to carr...

5 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Prince Charming” by G S Martin

Submitted to Contest #246

PRINCE  CHARMING g s martin 1955 Los Angeles, California. Millions of V8s spewing second-hand petrol. Leaded gas weather. Every morning, I watch the smog fill the LA basin. It looks like that picture Granny showed me of a dust storm. Smog is bad. When the brown wave gets here, breathing hurts. Like poison gas. Sometimes, the Santa Ana winds blow the smog out to sea. When that happens, the sky turns blue. There is no wind today. I just turned four. I stay at Miss Fleurette's Nursery School while my mom wraps...

8 likes 4 comments 4

Read story

“Take It With Both Hands” by Season C

Submitted to Contest #245

I wasn’t sure if mom could make it. I know how much she really wanted to and I knew I had no right to tell her no, but damn was I torn over it.I knew her and my dad had some kind of connection during the eclipse in 1979, but she’d only ever told me that it was “pretty amazing” and nothing much else.“I can do this Ronnie, I know I can. Let’s get the rest of this stuff in the truck,” she said a little breathlessly but full of her normal scolding tone I’d known since childhood.I dutifully grabbed two more of her bags and shut the truck–maybe a ...

2 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Eclipse Beginnings” by Victoria Wolfe

Submitted to Contest #245

**trigger warning: vulgar language, mention of death of family members by drunk driver** I adjusted the box of solar eclipse glasses one more time, switching it with the display of individually wrapped biscotti. The impending solar eclipse was taking our city by storm for the past four days since we were located on the path of totality, with a 100% solar eclipse late this afternoon.  “Callie, didn’t you already switch those twice already?” Monroe asked. Mo had been with me the longest. She was the first person I hired when I decided to...

5 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“Uncle Jack” by Snooze P

Submitted to Contest #246

My uncle, Jack, is a stoic man. He’s tall and quiet, and we never really talk to each other. He lives across town, having moved when I was a little girl, around seven years old, for some job. I used to see him more. His skin is pale, his eyes are dark and his hair is an ashy blond, like mine. His sister, my mom, has red hair. I try not to think about the dad I never had, but I wonder if I’m blonde because he was blond, or if I got that from my mom’s side, like Uncle Jack. His clothes are dark and sophisticated. He has some job, I don’t rea...

9 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“View From The Window” by Nick Baldino

Submitted to Contest #245

The plane is halfway through the air when the windows start to dim. It’s a connect flight from Houston to Albuquerque and I’m sitting by the wing, dreaming about a conversation long ago. We lived in a shank shack out in the desert, a fifteen minute walk up a single lane road where no one could get to us. The realtor knocked ten percent off the asking price because there was no running water, so we had to use a well in the twenty-first century. Daddy saw that as a plus- thought all that walking would turn us into a real family, one worth its...

18 likes 3 comments 3

Read story