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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

150+ Black Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover the best new stories by Black authors, written to themed prompts and curated by our judges.

Black Short Stories – Page 10 of 10

Bridging Horizons: A Journey of Ambition and Identity

Submitted to Contest #230

George Ogenah Jr. December 29, 2023 In a Flash Bridging Horizons: A Journey of Ambition and Identity In the lively coastal city of Lynn, Massachusetts, George found himself at a crossroads in his life. It felt like a warm hug, the familiar streets and the waves splashing on the shoreline. Despite that, a persistent yearning gnawed at him—a longing for more achievement and fulfillment. "I am strong in mind and body," George declared, gazing at the cityscape that he knew like the back of his hands. The historic architecture and cultural vi...

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Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day: In Search of a Brighter Future

Submitted to Contest #228

Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day: In Search of a Brighter Future Nobody has ever asked me how I feel, so I keep my thoughts to myself. I keep my thoughts, whether good, sad, happy, or bad, to myself. I can control my emotions better when I do. The one thing I have learned as a 78-year-old Black woman from South Georgia working as a housekeeper, cook, and nanny for a well-to-do white family is that you'll keep your job longer when you don't share what you think. Be invisible. I've worked for them since I was 17 years old, and this just grew...

6 likes 1 comment 1
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Dinner on the Red Planet

Submitted to Contest #228

Yemasi set the table for her Mother. She could tell her Mom was trying to hide her true feelings. Yemasi looked out the window at the red dust. They had been living on Mars all her life, which was sixteen years. "After dinner, Can Omari come over? He has a new communicator to show me." Yemasi's Mother frowned at her. "No, this is family time. You can see him  tomorrow after." Her Mother didn't finish the sentence. "Dad knows how to care for himself," Yemasi assured her Mom. As if on cue, her Father came through the front door. He h...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Unlikely encounters

Submitted to Contest #227

Some tiny but treacherous flakes kept touching his coat. Jake was walking back to his office. He noticed that it had started to snow, again. People were gradually pulling their hoods on to cover their head. A woman, working in his building, nearly fell.  Luckily, Tom was there to come to her rescue. She was wearing high heels and trying to quickly get in a car that had been waiting for her. With a deep sight, he enters the building. It was going to be a long afternoon. A Board meeting that promised to keep him, and all top executi...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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"My Doppelganger"

Submitted to Contest #225

"Ma'am why is it that you are not in your usual room on the tenth floor", murmured a senior hotel attendant when he saw Lucy's doppelganger leaving a room on the seventh floor. Nancy is a middle-aged black woman, attending a science conference in Abuja, Nigeria. The day had earlier turned into a series of unbelievable events. Firstly, Nancy met a man who told her she was really fast in changing from her wet tracking clothes to a lovely formal floral dress, he also asked with a smile, if she took a shower before coming to the restaurant as it...

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Of All the Places

Submitted to Contest #225

Of All the Places I have been very aware that I was adopted since I was ten. The meanest boy on the school bus loved to torture me just because I was the bus driver's daughter. The following day, after being assigned to the front seat across from mine, Andrew boarded with a huge grudge and the boasting of his nastier mother. As the door closed, his mother screamed, "You know what you must do." When the bus pulled from the stop, he shouted, "She's not your mother. You're adopted. Your real mother didn't want you." My mother tried to defuse th...

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It Wasn't Me

Submitted to Contest #225

As Tara swung her silver Mercedes sports car into the entrance to her driveway, she thought she saw someone sitting on her front steps.With a frown puckering her dark forehead, she began to search her mind to recall who she may have made an appointment to see. No one came to mind who she would be meeting at her house.Then she grew cross."It had better not be another reporter looking for a story," she grumbled out loud.Tara tried to get a good look at her visitor as she drew closer, deliberately driving slowly to give her time to complete her...

8 likes 6 comments 6
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He Speaks For Me

Submitted to Contest #225

My red paints mimic blood on the wooden floor. It finds its way near the fallen paint brushes that lay still next to the empty easel, the canvas now feet away from it.Looking at the self portrait makes me ashamed in an empty room and I no longer feel worthy of my spilled and wasted turquoise, copper red, or midnight blue.A quiet room filled with chaos is all I’m left with and perhaps it’s the fumes of the paints getting to me but I can’t fall down and cry so instead I drop down to my knees with a thud and burst out into laughter instead.Two ...

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Quicksand

Submitted to Contest #224

She caught sight of him at dawn when the sun woke from its slumber. He for a brief moment saw her at dusk when the sun peered over the horizon, and the moon rose to take its place. Like passing trains in the midst of night they traveled separate journeys. Neither spoke much these days, buried by the silence, and the reluctance to resolve their troubles. Puppy love turned to malevolence quickly after the weights of life beared down and reality sank it's teeth deep into their teenage fantasy. Brenda and Damon, almost thirty, no longer relis...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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Winston & Libby

Submitted to Contest #223

Winston & Libby Trigger Warning. The following is a black comedy that features profanity. It also involves substance abuse, mental health issues, suicidal thoughts and violence. I gaze out the window. Another bleak day, rainy and grey. I've been correcting papers since 7 am. I eye the name at the top of each paper. That moron. She’s lazy. He’s obese. Fucking beatnik. Who? And so forth. Then I wade through them, one by one. Relentless monotony. Usually, after minutes have crawled by, it occurs to me that I have no idea what I've just ...

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Sweet And Sour

Submitted to Contest #222

“Any more words of wisdom?” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” “You come up with that, yourself?” “It’s Shakespeare.” “When have you read any Shakespeare?” “It says it on this small piece of paper, quoting Shakespeare.” “I thought you only read stuff when it’s got pictures in it.” “I’ll have you know that we are living in the new age of literary enlightenment.” “What, reading comics?” “They’re starting to be referred to as graphic novels, now.” “More commonly known as children’s books.” “They come with a rating, Tom. So, they ain’t f...

26 likes 16 comments 16
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On the Job Training

Submitted to Contest #222

On the Job Training Picture it: I have known what I wanted to be since I was ten: a nurse… My mother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at sixteen. For the most part, she had things under control. Type 1 diabetics are insulin-dependent. It snowed overnight, and nothing was moving or open for three days. My father had a pulpwood business, and his logging truck would plow through. When the town reopened on Saturday, Mom asked Dad to pick up her insulin. I don't know if the communication got lost in translation or if he got distracted by his ...

10 likes 7 comments 7
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A Ghost?

Submitted to Contest #221

"Pardon me," a woman says as she tries to navigate her way through a crowded sidewalk to her cab. “Pardon me,” I say mockingly, pretending to do the same. “O, why do you even go the lengths to mock these people, they can’t even hear you!” Sheldon said.  “Well, some can,” I say smiling big.  Sheldon rolls his eyes and we both continue down the busy city street. “I mean seriously, who talks like that; no one.” “Why do you always have an attitude,”? Sheldon responded with annoyance, “This has been an everyday thing and...

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October and the Ghost

Submitted to Contest #221

October entered her apartment and paused. She stood in her doorway, dropped her bags, and sighed. Before her stood a tall, pale, skeleton of a man. He wore a white, long-sleeve gown down to his shins that was way too big for his emaciated frame. He was barefoot. His eyes and cheeks were sunken. Everything about him looked like he’d never tasted food. Which would explain the look of anger and vengeance glued to his face. She’d be mad too if she’d never tasted spices.But what annoyed her at present wasn’t him, but what he’d done.In yet another...

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Roses and Thorns

Submitted to Contest #221

Fatima stepped out of the bar, giddy. Amidst the drinks and food – they were celebrating her friend’s promotion – , a faint scent of men cologne dragged her mind down the torturous path of her past.The scent was strikingly familiar to that of her ex-boyfriend's. Could they not produce perfumes exclusive to each person? Now, her nostrils flare at every passing smell of Sauvage de dior cologne.“I love this!!” Olamide was grinning and swaddling his girlfriend in a hug. It was valentine’s day and Fatima had gifted him a collection of items, one ...

29 likes 11 comments 11
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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