Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

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.

150+ 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 5 of 10

Dear Diary

Submitted to Contest #306

Dear Diary, I know, how cliche. I usually have a way with words but only in the chaos of my mind. Today I got up and made my daily OCD ritual of list making. You know, Monday: coffee, get ready for work, make lunch, etc. It's my version of ground hog day. Good morning, Punxsutawney Phil. Work is, you know, work, but today Jen and Travis had a lover's quarrel in the stairwell. Apparently, Jen gave Travis an ultimatum about coming clean to the wife. He didn't, they never do, some think murder is the better and easier way out. I better keep an ...

1 like 0 comments 0
Read story

The Creep Across the Street

Submitted to Contest #306

Trigger Warning- this short story contains Strong Language, and Sexual Content. The Creep Across the Street FADE IN:SUPER: PART 1- IN THE BEGINNINGEXT. THE CARDINAL MOTEL- NIGHTA drone lights up, and takes off towards The Remington Hotel.INT. THE REMINGTON HOTEL- NIGHTMADDIE (20s) and CASSIE WILLIAMS (30s), visit at the front desk while they have no customers. They look sharp in their lime green uniforms.CASSIEI have been really jumpy lately.Yesterday, I screamed when I saw agrasshopper.MADDIEReally, Cassie?CASSIEReally, Maddie. Oh, shit. ...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Tomorrow is Yesterday

Submitted to Contest #306

June 6th 2000. Tomorrow is the day. I can’t believe it. I knew the day would come eventually but it’s actually here.A new chapter, a new last name, the unknown, an end and a beginning.I can’t imagine my life without him.I’m nervous and a little scared.I wonder what he’s thinking now.Does he have any regrets or cold feet?Will he sleep a wink tonight? I know I won’t.I want to call him but I know I shouldn’t.True love is rare, more so than I could ever have imagined.Will I cry? Probably, I usually do.Ok, enough stalling. Lights off, time for be...

26 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Recipe for a Body Built from the Ground Up

Submitted to Contest #306

Recipe for a Body Built from the Ground Up They’ll say it’s vanity.They’ll call it a phase.They’ll assume it’s about the mirror, the scale, the angles. But you know better. This is not about looking good in jeans. This is about peeling yourself off the bathroom floor after the breakdown and choosing—again—to try.It’s about reclaiming your body from the stress, the kids, the comments, the trauma.It’s about finally building a home you don’t want to escape from. So here it is: not a meal plan, not a miracle.Just a recipe—raw and real—for the wo...

10 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Saline Coffee Calcium

Submitted to Contest #306

Saline Coffee CalciumThere were three items on the original grocery list. Saline, coffee, calcium. Jamie said these three words to herself like a mantra. Saline, coffee, calcium. Saline, coffee, calcium. She drove her sonic gray Honda Civic to the supermarket, breezed through the automatic doors confident in her mantra, her mind humming. Comfortable in her pull-on baggy jeans, black Sam Edelman sneakers, no socks, black tee and jeans jacket, she believed she belonged in the world, set her phone to the Scan It app, chose a shopping cart.TofuO...

3 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Lincoln's Special Horses Team, Mission Sheri Lynn, a silent film

Submitted to Contest #306

Lincoln's Special Horses TeamMission Sheri Lynn***These days, folks are well aware of elite Special Forces units. Few people are aware of President Lincoln's covert Special Horses Team and their early martial arts training. One team specialized in covert Congressional oversight. During my time at the National Archives, I discovered, buried deep in the basement, a report from a Black Ops Unit penned by Captain "Doc" Elijah Humphries. The sole report referencing the team, I assume, was misfiled from its proper place in the President's archives...

4 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

Gamestop Paradise

Submitted to Contest #306

Opening Credits: Introduce the companies that helped make the game. Desk Ware; Death Engine; Cryodense; Writer’s Public; Game Deluxe; AxxRapper.Intro video: A spaceship is landing on a wintery field. There is a space colony nearby but it’s abandoned. The space marines leave the ship, but the ice beneath the ship gives way and the ship falls beneath the ground, almost bringing the space marines with it. The space marines look around for a while and then the leader of the space marines gets on his intercom. They then proceed to the abandoned c...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Farewell Address

Submitted to Contest #306

Farewell AddressRain tapped the windowpanes in soft pulses. The sound of a lone siren rose and fell faintly in the distance. Inside, the Oval Office lights were harsh.The president sat at his desk with his sleeves rolled up. In his hand was a printed copy of George Washington’s Farewell Address from 1796, double-spaced and underlined in blue ink.He started to read from the document, but then looked up to finish what he’d memorized. “The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity… must always exalt the just pride of patr...

14 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Excerpts from the Maplewood Falls, Vermont Town Day Recipe Contest Winners

Submitted to Contest #306

1911 – Mrs. Edith TempletonMaple Apple Brown BettyExcerpt from the Maplewood Broadside, October 1911:“It was with great pleasure that the Ladies’ Committee awarded first prize in the inaugural Town Day Cookery Contest to Mrs. Edith Templeton of Church Street. Her Brown Betty, humble in ingredients but noble in flavor, warmed the hearts of all who partook. It is said the Reverend himself returned for seconds.”Recipe:Ingredients:4 tart apples¼ cup brown sugar1 teaspoon cinnamonA pinch of nutmegA scrape of lemon peel6 slices of stale bread4 ta...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

University of Alabama 1968

Submitted to Contest #306

CW: Contains themes and/or references to racial discrimination, police brutality, and death University of Alabama 1968 damien.comHi Momma,Sorry it took me so long to write but I've been really busy learning my way around the campus then getting started at my new part time job. To start off, let me tell you about my room mate. His name is Jeff and he's a white boy but he's okay sharing a room with me. To tell you the truth, he's a bit shy and doesn't seem to have many friends anyway. Then there's my classes. I've only been to three so far and...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Jonathon Crosby’s Journal

Submitted to Contest #306

June 7My wife told me I should start journaling. June 8Ham for breakfast. Rabbit stew for lunch. Dinner will be steaks.Work was fine. No broken bones.Cabrón = bastard June 10Long day at work yesterday. Plowed nearly 1,000 miles. Diego told me that my hair looked “less lucious” than it did yesterday. I’m still bald. June 11At Amy’s suggestion, here’s my attempt at a poem:Hot days, cool nights.Long fields and plow lights Dirt for miles, dirt on my shoes Blades like diamonds cut through the boozeSwirly view of waving branchesRemind me of soil ...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Claude gets out

Submitted to Contest #305

Claude left the meeting with the Barone brothers with a sense of cautious relief, he wanted to get Daisy out of town before the next conversation with Lenny Barone. He was done. He hurried back to his apartment to meet Daisy. He walked into the apartment and saw his girl lounging on the couch, reading a magazine and eating an apple. “What are you up to?”“I’m resting for a while then I’ll be getting ready to go to the club this evening. Joe's got a whole band for this weekend, with that new singer I can’t remember the name of.” “I would re...

5 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Mekhasheyfe

Submitted to Contest #306

Ghost,When Uncle Al died, leaving Leon grieving, and Rachel drifting into depravity, the last bit of my forebears’ lambency blinked out with him. Rachel, 12 years younger than Al, was a sort of big sister to me, at least before she started to spiral. Rachel’s descent into her own darkness preceded Uncle Al’s passing by several years. As such things tend to unfold, by the time I needed Rachel most, she had already begun to deteriorate, a reality which I only pieced together over time.I had known Rachel since I was 9 and she was 15. Mother hir...

12 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

An Important Decision

Submitted to Contest #305

“You know what? I quit.”No, of course, no one could hear me. I was alone in my office – shared, but pretty much my own – and it was only 9:46 in the morning, so we would have a meeting in less than fifteen minutes and I did not really want to see Mr. Roleiman’s face again on a Monday morning before I had my first cup of coffee and he told the staff all about how so-and-so did such a great job with sales (clap clap clap) and then the other person got a dozen clients to sign on for things that they could not afford (clap clap clap clap) and th...

13 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Unicorn Baby

Submitted to Contest #305

I stared at the crowd and told the biggest lie of my life. The auditorium erupted with accolades. Light reflecting over curved lines and raised cheekbones with intermittent pearly whites, diagnosed me with instant photophobia. When my eyes refused to be dazzled down, I rushed off the stage and regurgitated my brain fog into yellow-green globules of the sweetcorn sandwich I had shoved up my face thirty seconds before the most important speech of my career. “Ya killed it, bestie-saurus!” Miranda wasn’t exactly my best friend, more like a high...

4 likes 6 comments 6
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.