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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of american short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

3770+ 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.

American Short Stories – Page 2 of 252

Houston

Submitted to Contest #294

Houston  By WR Brown “Everything’s gonna be fine”. That’s Uncle John, grinning as usual, banging his way out the front door. “He’s weird Bobby,” says Mary Ann, “why does he say that?” “He told me that Mama and Donald are gettng married today,” I tell her.    It’s a hot Saturday in Biloxi and the windows are open and the summer breezes just blow the heat around. Me and my neighbor Mary Ann are in my living room playing with her brother’s Switch. He told her she can’t take it outside of their house but Mary Ann’s real in...

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Apocalpyse Crying

Submitted to Contest #294

Their horses are more nimble than leopards and swifter than wolves in the evening: their horsemen will spread out. And then their horsemen will approach from far away: they will fly like the eagle, hurrying to devour. Habakkuk 1:8 Lieutenant Paul Zimmerman clutched the side of his slick as it cut through the air towards destiny. Or at least that’s what Captain Murdock told him. He wasn’t sure that it was his destiny. He was here because he followed orders. The Army drilled that into his brain during basic training. Those orders meant that Pa...

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Tempus Fugit

Submitted to Contest #294

                                                 TEMPUS FUGITAlexander was late again, but she told herself that it was just the way Alexander was.He was well built, stocky, and usually rather untidy in his dress. Even if he combed his hair constantly, it flopped annoyingly over his forehead. You neve...

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Too Late

Submitted to Contest #294

Prompt: Write a story in which the first and last sentence are the same.Too Late“What was the owner of this red corvette thinking when he ordered a vanity license plate saying “Too Late?" Why such a nebulous and ominous phrase?  I wanted so much to ask the owner but he quickly drove by me. That stingray corvette was a gorgeous piece of machinery. It was sleek and painted in firehouse red without a ding or scratch on it. The owner really knew how to take special care of such a prized vehicle. I figured ...

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A Most Promising Man

Submitted to Contest #294

   “Step right up, step right up! No need to push! No need to shove!”Bryan “Carney” Barker III stood at a podium on a makeshift stage as thousands wearing red caps filed in for another in a series of rambunctious political rallies meant to inspire hope for the future and to sell t-shirts.    “Take it easy. Don’t crowd. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”Carney was the most trusted advisor for the most distrusted man in the world, the former President of the United States who was campaigning to b...

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Hello, Are You Chinese?

Submitted to Contest #294

"Hello, are you Chinese?"  "Not at all."  "So, what or who are you?" "My name is Maggy." "Hello, Maggy, " I observe you have a darker complexion and dark brownish-red eyes like those in the desert."  "Is it important to you, I look this way?"  "Oh, honey! I don't care how you look as long as you enjoy partying. Can you score for me?”  "Coke?”  "Fuck you! Whoop! Every day, that's all we do here. Let it slide, sister," the seller said. “I’m in. Please give me anything you have," Maggy said. "It's a...

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The Interrogation

Submitted to Contest #294

"I've said too much." He doesn't believe me when I tell him what it is I am trying to convey with my limited vocabulary."Can you at least try and tell me what it was that you saw?" He asks me."I told you the first time and you threw it back at me as if I was a lunatic bent on being put in a straight-jacket. What makes you think I have anything else to tell you." I ranted at his effort to get me to tell him again a story that he clearly did not believe and I was not going to give him the satisfaction of telling it all again as his face look...

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EMBERS

Submitted to Contest #294

I am in the winter o’ my life and I knows it.   My bones knows it, too. And, sometimes, as I sit and stare into the fire, I imagine I can see ‘em: the faces o’ those few folk that have shared this mountain with me. All o’ them, beckoning to me, reaching out. But I ain’t quite ready to reach back. Not just yet. But that time is coming, I knows. And who’d you think is front and foremost calling to me from those flames? Why that hornery injun that caused us so much grief in our early years. We never knew ...

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Jason's Epiphany

Submitted to Contest #294

“You can’t run from your past,” Mildred told her son, Jason. “And that’s why Momma can’t belong to the PTA.” She smiled at her son and kissed him. She handed him his lunch and pushed him out the door. When Jason got outside at the end of the walk, he turned around and said, "But Momma, if it’s your past, then why do they keep bringing it up? Haven’t you already paid for what you’ve done?" She waved him on, and he met with his friends and talked about anything and everything sports. “Mrs. Horan, I have something on my mind,” Ja...

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I'll Love You More Tomorrow

Submitted to Contest #294

The following letters are based on actual events in my own life. The letters themselves are made up but are based on true feelings and conversations. Dates are also modified. November 12, 2024 My hubs, it’s been about a month since you deployed. Honestly, it mostly has just sucked. But those first couple of weeks weren’t so bad because I truly thought I may have gotten pregnant right before you left… you know how we’ve wanted that so badly. I figured… what the hell, if I get pregnant right before my husband deploys, at least I’ll know I got ...

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A Loss For Words

Submitted to Contest #294

Dear Jim: I’m at a loss for words. This is a problem. I’m a writer – at least I’m supposed to be. How can I be a loss for words? On the other hand, how could any words possibly do justice to how much the events of the last few months have changed my life? I suppose the beginning is a good place to start. You know it has always been my dream to be a journalist, right? Well, as it turns out, dreams do come true! It all happened so fast, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. One day I was opening my millionth rejection letter, and the nex...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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The Passenger

Submitted to Contest #293

I live in rural Maine, where the nearest commuter rail is three hundred miles away. And since my pharmaceutical employer declared that remote work is “no longer an option” (and I have bills to pay), I climb into my car each morning and drive an hour to work. Admittedly, it’s not a stressful drive. It’s mostly fields, a stretch of wood, a Circle K, the local Tractor Supply, more fields, another wood. Bang a right at the stop light, go twenty more miles, then turn left into the parking lot. If I’m being honest, I mostly zone out during the dr...

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Blue Shadow

Submitted to Contest #294

So to write this story, I first had to figure out how to use the Book Title Generator. I tried signing in and of course the login sent me to another page called Marketplace that had absolutely nothing to do with a book title generator. I went back to the generator and chose sci-fi as my category and the first title generated was Blue Shadow. Now I am not by nature a believer in such things as divine intervention, or the supernatural, but I do own a Honda Shadow that is metallic Blue. So what would anyone in my shoes do? They write a story ...

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Slow Lane Eulogy

Submitted to Contest #293

The view from the rear driver’s side window remained stationary. It would change, eventually. The traffic back from the Poconos was insane, and this was the fastest route according to the GPS. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t also over eighty degrees out, the cell service was better than spotty, and the radio was working properly. Stuck on an upstate New York backroad in traffic with just radio static is awful, I knew I should have downloaded some podcasts or eBooks. Now all I have is my view of nature for entertainment.   ...

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First Class Passengers

Submitted to Contest #293

First Class PassengersGary E. GrissomRon Scott and I had gone on a weekend pass from Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, to his parents’ home in Pittsburgh. We had flown there by using military standby status on an America Airlines 707. To get military standby reduced tickets, you needed to wear your uniform. We felt very lucky to get two seats on the plane and looked forward to an exciting weekend away from the fort and to be wearing civilian clothes again. Ron’s father met us at the airport at 7 p.m. and drove us to their home.“I ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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