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

3810+ 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 255

Hope is Kindled

Submitted to Contest #297

A nurse rushes past the open door. I could hear his squeaking shoes from the start of the hallway, but they didn't slow down so I didn't look up when he passed. I sit in an uncomfortable, hospital green chair in the corner of a sterile, beeping room with my hands clasped, leaning over my knees, staring intently at the tv on the wall. My neck aches from the angle, good god why do they put them up so high. It's currently showing a Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit marathon, TLC is playing reruns of Toddlers in Tiaras, The History Channel is pla...

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New Beginnings

Submitted to Contest #298

Title: New BeginningsWhen Hunter Carson stepped off the bus in the small town of Liberty Hill, everything felt like a blank page. It was the kind of place with just one high school, where the coffee shop shared a wall with the liquor store, and the air always smelled faintly of cedar and something sweeter Hunter couldn’t name.Back in his old town, Hunter had been the shy kid. The one people called "weird" because he read books during lunch and dressed like he missed the memo on normal. Here, he told himself, things would be different.The nig...

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Time in a Bottle

Submitted to Contest #297

My father is dying. I sit near his bed as he grapples with his pain. His anguish puts a helpless twist in my gut. With trembling hands, I pick up the morphine bottle and fill the calibrated dropper to the five milliliters prescribed for “pain as needed”. I release the soothing dosage under his tongue, and his moaning subsides within seconds.Eighty seemed unimaginably ancient when I was a kid. Now it seems too young to die. It makes me wonder if I’ll still be above ground when I become an octogenarian twenty-five years from now.Dad entered th...

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"It's Time: 0600"

Submitted to Contest #297

Prompt: Write a story with a number or time in the title.Prompt: Set you story before midnight or dawn. “It’s Time: 0600” The day looked dreary and cold even as the sun had just lifted above the horizon. The thick air turned the sunlight into straw-colored clouds as I looked out my window from my bed. The weather outside really does not matter anymore as I have little energy to do anything now. My breathing has been erratic even with all the gadgetry and tubes running into me. I spend my days now lying in this bed at the rehabilitation cen...

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The Good That Happens To Others

Submitted to Contest #298

Sam had always felt invisible. He wasn’t the smartest in class nor the most athletic. He wasn’t the life of the party, nor the quiet, mysterious type people admired. He was just… there. Every day, he walked the same route to school, passing by the same bakery where the old woman, Mrs. Reyes, struggled to carry flour sacks inside. He walked by and stopped to help, lifting the heavy bags over his shoulder as she patted his arms in thanks. “Such a kind boy,” she always said, her warm eyes crinkling with gratitude.At school, he was neither pop...

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THE LINE

Submitted to Contest #297

Oblique reference to sex and language *** I don’t know which sense is responsible but somehow we can just tell when someone is staring at us and that’s even when, as in this case, it’s coming from behind. But then there’s an automatic question - is that stare friendly, appreciative, leering, what? The promise of an answer starts with a polite “Excuse me?” I turn around and come face to face with soulful blue eyes topping off a tall and very handsome man. Wavy black hair, tanned face, and toned physique complete one heck of a picture. “I don’...

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Seven O'clock, or Whenever

Submitted to Contest #297

“Seven O’clock… or Whenever”When Matt rolled over in bed the beam of early Spring sunlight hit him right in the face. He put his hand over his eyes and let out a long sigh. “Well,” he thought, “Daylight Savings Time or not, if I have to turn the clock ahead and lose an hour of sleep, I’m glad it’s on a Sunday.” He lay there staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. Before he could relax completely his alarm clock buzzed at the usual seven o’clock setting. He reached over and turned it off. Reluctantly, he got out of bed.He’d been divorced fo...

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DEAR BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOL K-5

Submitted to Contest #297

DEAR BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOL K-5By Hannah Stone This is a work of fiction with some truth mixed in. All names have been changed. Dear Kindergarten Teacher, I don’t remember you. But I have a class photo, and you look super sweet. Years later, my mom told me she kept bumping into you at bars on the weekends and thought you were embarrassed. Don’t be… she says it’s how single women met men in those days. I just wish my mom hadn’t left my half-brother to babysit when she went barhopping. Signed,The Keeper of Secrets ***Dear Boston Public School...

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Heroes and Men in the City of Angels

Submitted to Contest #297

“Pop quiz hot shot!” “Don’t got time for this, Travers.” Detective Travers laughed, a very inappropriate time for laughter. Sweat dripped down Paul Harmon’s face. The timer on the explosive device continued to count down. Paul needed to concentrate, but for the life of him, Travers decided it was time to be that asshole. “There is a bomb in a skyscraper. The scumbag has told you that if one person leaves, he blows the entire building. It is also the building in which Detective Harmon’s sister works in. What do you do? What do you do?” “Shit,...

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Holding her breath.

Submitted to Contest #297

( Trigger warning the following contains violence and mental health themes. )I just woke up. My chest is tight and I cannot breathe. "This must be an asthma attack", I think to myself. I started to try to control my breaths, but it's not working. This is one of those night time attacks and they are much worse. I start to panic a little trying to recount where my inhaler is. It's my purse, all the way in the living room.I hear a shuffle by the house on the otherside of the room. The skirting of the trailer bends in making a noise. An angry ye...

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The Unwanted Kittens

Submitted to Contest #297

The Unwanted KittensIt was just before midnight, and I was walking home from my friend Tonya's party. I lived ten blocks from her house and thought walking home would be no big deal. It would only take a short time to walk to my house.I was fine for the first two blocks. The streetlights led me down the sidewalk, but when I turned on Moonlight Avenue, there were very few lights, and it was so quiet. All I could hear was my heavy breathing. As I walked in the darkness, my imagination started playing tricks.While I was walking down the street,...

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Epigenetic inheritance

Submitted to Contest #297

Smith woke up in a panic. He had hunted sleep throughout his life, and thus it evaded him like a giant white whale. Since his retirement, that whale seemed to hunt him in return. He had normally asked himself his grounding questions in order, but this morning was different. His first question was, when am I? He had fallen asleep in a different room. The French Victorian decor alluded to the late eighteenth century. No, that’s not right. He reminded himself. Let’s narrow this down, what time is it? He looked over at an alarm clock on the beds...

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Arrest Me! I Recently 'Stole' 4 Seed Packets

Submitted to Contest #297

Last week, I shoplifted. Before you rush to judge me, let me clarify: I didn’t realize I had committed a crime until I was loading the items I’d bought at Walmart into the trunk of my car. Honest. The last item I moved was a small bag of printer ink, for which I’d paid a hefty price in the Electronics Department. It was then that I noticed something odd: four loose packets of Zinnia seeds tucked beneath the ink bag. Oh no. I’d missed scanning and paying for them. In that moment, I had to admit, I’d just stolen $5.76 worth of seeds (well, $6....

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Time to Start

Submitted to Contest #297

Why did I have to be so darn trusting? I believed him, even though there was the little voice in the back of my head that said 'he's going to hurt you.' Yet here I was sitting in this packed airport waiting. Waiting for him to show up so we can fly to Vegas to elope. "What time is it?" I heard a voice from behind me bringing me out of my thoughts. I looked down at my wrist that happened to be naked. I left my watch at home for this purpose. It was one thing to torture myself with thoughts, but I refused to by tortured by facts. And ...

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Don't tell me! Just tell me!

Submitted to Contest #297

“Wait a minute,” said Hardcastle, wiping his glasses with his finger. “What time is it?”“Plus la diference, monsieur!” said Peters, the local watch seller. “You do not know how long I’ve waited to hear those words!”“Wait, what did you say?”“I said, of course, that I have been waiting over a century, over a millennium, for you to utter the words which thou has just…Would you like a glass of champagne?”“Champagne? Are you off your rocker, old man? I just wanted to know what time it was! This isn’t dentistry!”“I know, my friend.”“Well, if you k...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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