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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 251 of 252

Grace

Submitted to Contest #54

The sun lies dappled on the casual, drifting reuland leaves, a rare and beautiful sight, but all it does is make you lightheaded and sick. The leaves are bright green, poison-green, and shiny in the merciless light. Around you are the crackling of heavy footsteps through the brush, and singsongy, whispering Clan chants, and the occasional swish of a blade through the underbrush. Everyone’s feet move in silent, brushing Indian steps across the leaf-covered forest floor. Your father’s hand is on your shoulder, heavy and warm, and you want it t...

95 likes 19 comments 19
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Jonathan

Submitted to Contest #53

Jonathan Dryden’s red popsicle was melting. It dripped through his fat fingers, and when he wiped them on the front of his faded old tee shirt it looked like blood streaks. Jonathan probably did that on purpose, though. Jonathan always did weird stuff like that.  “Tell them the werewolf story, Jonathan,” said snotty little Randy Bates, who had been following Jonathan around for most of the summer. “Jonathan saw a werewolf last year, guys.” Jonathan smirked and puffed out his chest a little bit as he tossed his popsicle ...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Cherry Popsicle Day

Submitted to Contest #53

“Let me have it!” gushed out despairingly as he grasped at the melting cherry Popsicle just out of reach on the cement floor, it’s scarlet image blurred by the tears in his eyes. The soaring August heat was rapidly turning the Popsicle into a heap of cherry slush. A brutal booted foot smashed down on his hand, splintering Tyrell’s slender fingers, as another boot swung like a wrecking ball into his teeth and nose, again, again...“Hey, guys, Pumpkinhead wants his bloody Popsicle, should we let him have it?” Angelo snarled. Luke and Rodrigo, t...

20 likes 2 comments 2
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Droplets

Submitted to Contest #53

The droplets darkened, diluting as they pulled the ink from Melvin’s writing. He sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He crumpled the paper and tossed it over his shoulder. He fanned himself as he leaned back in his seat, gazing over his desk. The corn swayed in a gentle breeze beyond the glass, a deceitfully pleasant scene in the midst of the mid-August swelter. Still, he felt a compulsion to go bask in the peaceful illusion. He strained as he pushed himself up, gripping the chair’s arm tightly in his struggle to balance. He waved at...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Summer Cousins

Submitted to Contest #53

There was magic in the lake.Grammy told me that. Of course, Grammy was a bit magic herself. Every year on the last day of summer, Grammy packed her picnic hamper, and together we’d carry it down to the old dock where the reeds were thin and the ducks liked to gather. We’d sit for hours with our feet dangling in the water, just Grammy and me, because I was the oldest and (I suspected), that made me the favorite. We’d eat cheese sandwiches wrapped in crinkled brown paper and thick slices of Great Aunt Millie’s angel food cake, which Gramm...

30 likes 12 comments 12
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Banana, Bacon

Submitted to Contest #51

Walk down to the Museum of Natural History, then take the subway to Columbus Circle. Eddie could hear his mother’s voice in his mind as clear as if she were speaking to him now, even though he hadn’t spoken to her for years. Make sure you take the A train to Columbus. No, that wasn’t quite right. Make sure you take the B train to Columbus. Which one was it? He strained his mind, trying to remember. This was a trip he made nearly daily as a kid, but 15 years is long enough to forget even the most important facts. He was already forg...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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Leo

Submitted to Contest #51

The Leo constellation is my favourite. It’s also my star sign. I guess that is why it’s my favourite, Leo’s are self-centered and stubborn: I always get what I want. Don’t get me wrong, I worked for what I have. I was the valedictorian at high school, I had an enviable GPA and I got into Yale and Harvard on merit alone, but I had to sacrifice likeability. People who are loved get nowhere. Fact. So I ditched that sentimentality, for this: perched on a sunbed, at 2am in my parents immaculately landscaped garden, feet skimming cool, pool water ...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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Home

Submitted to Contest #47

They’re doing it again, you thought, biting down your lip in frustration.           The sounds of your grandmother’s favorite chinaware breaking into pieces on the marble floor and the sounds of anger from the hoarse voices awoke you up, like thunder and lightning rampaging simultaneously and disturbing what’s left of your peaceful sanity.           You looked out the window and sighed.        ...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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New World Experiment #2,613,937

Submitted to Contest #45

“Hey, can I see your world? Mine is a bit… hard to look at right now.” After years of studying civilization and creating new universes, it baffles me how we’ve gotten nowhere. I doubt my research looks any different than my coworker’s, but I allow him to have a look anyways. “Eek. That’s what’s been happening in mine. I don’t get it. No matter what we do, how many challenges and gifts we give to our experiments, they always end like this. Why?” I peer through my glass screen again, watching the small people in New World Experiment #2,487,519...

18 likes 0 comments 0
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Snowy Maine

Submitted to Contest #36

Friday, January 1, 2010I’m officially married to my Love and we are traveling on an airplane to Boston for an overnight stay before we catch a second flight to Maine! I’m not feeling too nervous though I managed to take a few deep breaths as we took off. I’ve not been on an airplane since I was 2 years old and now being 25 years old…well, it is a bit of an adjustment. Our luggage got through just fine, but when I walked through the metal detectors all the bells and whistles went off and I just got terrorist scanned. Yeah, I thought it would ...

5 likes 2 comments 2
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Enemies No Longer

Submitted to Contest #35

The day had dawned with a vengeance, not to be forgotten by any of the blue-coated soldiers as they arose in the early morning.Corporal Elias W. Killough stretched the small of his back as he stood in line for the weak coffee that was being offered along with the paltry portions of what the cook called breakfast. Half-warmed watery porridge and some leathery strips of bacon, when what he craved was a steaming plateful of flapjacks and sausages, perhaps even with a side of a corn muffin or something of the sort.“Here you go, Corporal,” smiled...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Fantasy and Reality

Submitted to Contest #34

I watch the rain pattering on the window. There’s no gentle wind or thunder, but that’s fine; it beats the ice and snow we endured not too long ago. The lawn and trees especially seem greener and perkier, their newly-growing spring foliage swaying beneath the drab gray clouds floating overhead.Then, a stranger holding a tattered umbrella and wearing sanitary gear walks onto our neighborhood's pock-marked street. He glances toward me, and I look away, back to my second-hand computer. My eyes then dance across a news article published minutes ...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Night of the Flaming Cow

Submitted to Contest #24

The Bahai-Rama was awash in light and laughter. Swirling, bubbling lights swept over the crowds of beautiful people, bursts of fire exploded in the face of the yellow moon above them, and music of all kinds rumbled from the corners of the yacht.Women in gauzy yellow butterfly dresses flocked around men in high scarlet collars breathing fire. A man with three monkeys hanging from his shoulders stood on his head and sang a love song to a blushing lady whose neck and face were painted in gracefully whirling, gleaming colors of bloodred and mell...

32 likes 1 comment 1
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Butterfly Wings in a Shoebox

Submitted to Contest #20

Maarte woke with a start, and early. It was dark still. She lay there with her eyes open, searching for the window, trying to remember what day it was. Then she remembered.She rose after a few minutes and went and sat at the kitchen table, watching the window that looked out onto the empty lot next door.Maarte sat silently, listening to the first of the birds outside. After a few minutes she made her coffee and waited for the sun. By the time she was drinking the dregs, dawn had broken quietly before her.Maarte stood and dressed quickly. It ...

36 likes 3 comments 3
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Thicker Than Water

Submitted to Contest #18

Landry crossed his arms, his tanned face hard and stubborn as he stared at his brother so intently that Dawson thought his eyes were going to fall out of his face. Landry’s eyes were one of a kind, they were. So big and blue that they looked like the deep puddles outside where the surface of the water reflected the cloudless blue sky. It had been washed clean by the rains that had tormented the rural Indiana countryside for weeks, and now, finally, the small town and its inhabitants were left with the aftermath. As if it wasn’t hard enough a...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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