4960+ Creative Nonfiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. The creative nonfiction stories on this page deliver exactly what it says on the tin: true stories told in weird and wonderful ways.

🏆 Winning stories

“You” by Elizabeth Hoban

🏆 Winner of Contest #260

We were death partners before we were friends. The day we met some 30 years ago, I was so pregnant with my first child, I resembled an over-stuffed sausage about to burst its casing. I’d forsaken style weeks earlier when my shoes no longer fit. I couldn’t even reach around my massive torso to shave my legs; limbs sporting enough hair to scrape clean a barbecue grill.  You, on the other hand, had just wrapped-up an open-house and strode across my threshold for the first time, like a seasoned runway model. I’ll never forget your chic...

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“Careful—You’ll Slip, Fall, and Die on Those Slippery Slopes ” by Liv Chocolate

🏆 Winner of Contest #182

cw: references to sexual assault, kidnapping, and murderThe first time I crossed a street by myself—as in, without one or both of my parents present—I was seventeen. My parents warned me that the outside world was dangerous, and that, if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't know what to do. According to my parents, kidnappers, murderers, and kidnapper-murderers lurked on every corner of our small, suburban town where, statistically, my chances of becoming the victim of a violent crime were less than my chances of being allowed to ...

222 likes 193 comments 193

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“Letting go” by Rebecca Miles

🏆 Winner of Contest #166

I dedicate this story to my partner and to everyone who has carried or is carrying the burden of grief.Sitting by the bed, holding my hand, you think my mind is fighting against the decision of my body to quit life’s game. My eyes are closed, but I sense your will through the fingers laced tightly around my own. Tenderness is a force and you stake my claim to life through the insistent pressure of your hand. How it has grown over these long years from its immaculate small perfection to this manifestation of adult capability: greeti...

192 likes 144 comments 144

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⭐️ Recommended stories

“God of the Greyhound” by Robert Egan

Submitted to Contest #276

Lately, the San Diego beach had taken on a screaming emptiness. There were people there, sure, and sun and sand and sea and sky, but they were hazy lines against the roaring void that I'd come to call the Big Zero. Plus I no longer recognized anyone at my hostel up the street. The crowd had changed to mostly young Europeans on holiday whose eyes passed over the zone of invisibility that my urine-scented top bunk had become. I was one of those guys who had stayed for too long. They knew it. The Big Zero knew it. And so did I."For $20, I can g...

28 likes 20 comments 20

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“A Ray of Encouragement ” by Anthony Andrés

Submitted to Contest #276

I felt my heartbeat quicken as I heard the ringback tone. One hand was absentmindedly playing with the curly cord, while the other was holding a piece of paper with a number on it. I regretfully stared at the ten digits as the ringing continued. Making phone calls already stressed me out, and the fact that I was about to interview a famous stranger added to my anxiety. “Why am I making this call?” I mentally lamented, even though I knew exactly who was at fault for my current panic attack.  A couple of weeks before I picked up the phone...

1 like 0 comments 0

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“Put It On My Tab!” by Kay Smith

Submitted to Contest #276

I met him when I was twenty.I dropped out of high school ran and away from home at sixteen.I got married at seventeen. By nineteen, I had two young daughters.I was a collection of banal statistics.My husband, Jim, had hair that hung straight down his back, parted in the middle; the color, two drastically different tones. You could catch him walking hurriedly across campus clad in vertically striped bell bottoms, an old t-shirt, and no shoes. He wore square, green-tinted, ironic little gl...

20 likes 20 comments 20

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“God of the Greyhound” by Robert Egan

Submitted to Contest #276

Lately, the San Diego beach had taken on a screaming emptiness. There were people there, sure, and sun and sand and sea and sky, but they were hazy lines against the roaring void that I'd come to call the Big Zero. Plus I no longer recognized anyone at my hostel up the street. The crowd had changed to mostly young Europeans on holiday whose eyes passed over the zone of invisibility that my urine-scented top bunk had become. I was one of those guys who had stayed for too long. They knew it. The Big Zero knew it. And so did I."For $20, I can g...

28 likes 20 comments 20

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“Slightly Charred” by Alex Kamczyc

Submitted to Contest #276

To the broke, unmotivated and hopeless college kid with no job, something like cooking your own meal can be trivial. On a good week, you’d get anywhere between 30 and 50 bucks that you’d need to stretch for the whole month. You could spend that on chicken, fresh veggies and pasta. Of course, Taco Bell is right down the street and a box of ramen is a buck fifty - which means you can buy a few cases of beer on the weekends if you need to. This was my life at Kent State University in gloomy Kent, Ohio, and aside from studying journalism and wri...

4 likes 2 comments 2

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“A Ray of Encouragement ” by Anthony Andrés

Submitted to Contest #276

I felt my heartbeat quicken as I heard the ringback tone. One hand was absentmindedly playing with the curly cord, while the other was holding a piece of paper with a number on it. I regretfully stared at the ten digits as the ringing continued. Making phone calls already stressed me out, and the fact that I was about to interview a famous stranger added to my anxiety. “Why am I making this call?” I mentally lamented, even though I knew exactly who was at fault for my current panic attack.  A couple of weeks before I picked up the phone...

1 like 0 comments 0

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“There Are Ghosts in Normal Heights, and You’re One of Them” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #276

I couldn’t breathe. Between the hot, moist gym air and the bacterial stench of sweat rags strewn across the floor, I felt a gag bubbling in my throat.I covered my nose with the sleeve of my flannel and breathed in the crisp, powdery smell of fabric softener. At that moment, I wondered why gyms were such popular mating grounds — a social hub to meet romantic and sexual prospects, as if we were at a dimly lit bar or under the moonlight.And then it happened. Through the haze of a dirty gym mirror, I, a neurotic grammar nazi with a fanny pack, h...

1 like 0 comments 0

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“A Name Too Big For Me” by Archie Arboleda

Submitted to Contest #276

Nothing brings my family together quite as good as a funeral. They’re like ants to spilled sugar. This time, the sugar being my grandmother's will. The last bit of her belongings spanning from her time here in the Philippines, Holland, Hawaii, and finally where she spent most of her time, with us in America. However, she wanted to die in the house her husband built for her, so she spent the last bit of time she had left in this world reminiscing about a man who was no longer there. Something that runs in our family, apparently. Our father, m...

2 likes 1 comment 1

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“Fortune cookies” by Atan Solp

Submitted to Contest #276

It was a usual morning; people around me were rushing about their business, and the city just started waking up. The sun was mercilessly beating down, penetrating through the pristine glass of the coffee shop, tripping over the curves of sofas and tables, and getting lost under the bar counter. The aroma of freshly made cappuccino filled the room and pleasantly tickled the sense of smell. I was sitting on a high stool and tamping marshmallows into the hot drink. Spring has come. Somewhere in other latitudes, this time of year is accompanied ...

2 likes 0 comments 0

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“The Subtle Irk” by Anna Fothergill

Submitted to Contest #276

Contains sensitive content relating to mental health & abuse. On paper, Edward was everything I wanted. Since then, I have rewritten, burned and sprinkled the ashes of that paper all over the very idea of “a type”. If a type can be flattened to paper, the likelihood is the embodied personality will be two-dimensional at best. At worst, they will be an Edward.  We were set up by my parents, so I suppose there was a baseline level of trust that was unwarranted. For the most part, Mom and Dad had stayed far away from my love life but ...

1 like 2 comments 2

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“Why I stopped believing. ” by Nichelle O

Submitted to Contest #276

12/30/2020    My mom sent me a text early this morning. Dad is having trouble breathing. I am taking him to the hospital.      I was alarmed but I knew God would protect my dad and my family. Four days earlier my entire family got diagnosed with the Coronavirus, the doctor's office filled with silence as the news was let out. We had just been talking about how good our 2020 had been despite the pandemic. Somehow we got blessed by God during a tragic year.      We...

0 likes 0 comments 0

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“The Difference” by Dave Volpe

Submitted to Contest #276

Since last week my days have been…different. As a creature of habit, I started this day the same: Three eggs and two medjool dates. Eat them standing at the counter. In silence. The way I like it. Popping my bubble of peace with any needle of conversation is the same as kicking my knee out from behind as I lift piping coffee to my lips and nails rake a chalkboard. Might as well walk under a ladder and open an umbrella inside because once that bubble pops, forget about it. Day’s a wash. So as far as mornings went, this one was perfect. I...

0 likes 0 comments 0

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“Scenic Ashes” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #276

We erupted with a Mount Vesuvius-sized argument of hate and anger, the worst in our twenty-five-year marriage. Her scream shattered me like a rock hitting a windshield. My response only spread the cracks further. It happened during the epidemic in 2020. Our marriage shut down like unessential restaurants, clothing stores, and churches. We had no announcement from the president, but we knew only the essentials of our marriage would remain open.  I hoped a few weeks would pass, and then all would return to normal. However, like our world,...

42 likes 29 comments 29

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“Yelling At The TV; The Journey To Becoming a Sporto” by Jacklyn Hunter

Submitted to Contest #276

In the world, there are sporty people and non-sporty people. As a child, as an adolescent, even as a young adult, I was non-sporty. Until one day I woke up and I was in the other circle. It was as if a switch had flipped and I was obsessed. Give me everything, I love it all. I love hockey, I am obsessed with football. I would watch lacrosse every day if they aired it. Basketball is interesting but I prefer the NCAA over NBA. I even watched Tennis for a little while. The journey to get there was something wild. My parents begged and plea...

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“Caroline, I Think” by KA James

Submitted to Contest #276

My sister-in-law got a conversation starter card game from a Secret Santa gift exchange at work, and it seemed that the family was going to have to suffer the consequences.It was the holiday season a few Christmases ago. OK, quite a few years back. Since the family was all mostly gathered in town already, we were having a pre-Christmas get together at my brother’s house. All the kids were in bed, or at least upstairs, and the adults were sitting up just drinking and bullshitting, when sister-in-law Debbie pulled out her new game.Skipping ahe...

17 likes 7 comments 7

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“Why Not Me, Lord?” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #276

“Why Not Me, Lord?”               “Atheists who keep asking for evidence of God’s existence are like fish in the ocean asking for evidence of water.”                                                     &nbsp...

19 likes 5 comments 5

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“Two Peas in a Pod” by Sarah Duffey

Submitted to Contest #276

At fifteen, I held someone’s hand while they died. My grandpa passed away from cancer in a hospital bed, and when his spirit left his body, the goodness in me seemed to go with it. Afterward, I became as hostile as a yellow jacket, always hovering just above my friends’ and family’s skin. Over the next few years, relationships crumbled as I went from “the nicest person” someone ever met to “why don’t you just put a knife in me” kind of disappointing. I’d been on a rotary of psychiatric medications, and yet I still counted calories and lacked...

0 likes 0 comments 0

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“On the Run” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #276

This is the confession of an addict. I will admit that I have spent a lot of time not writing about my love of jogging, or running (both words mean different things to me; I will explain them later). Running was one of the things in my life that I came to completely on my own. It was never something that I was encouraged to do. I never did track and field in school (never even made it onto a team of any kind). I saw no one in my family who enjoyed going for a run. And it was not something that I ever suspected would change my life. But it ha...

21 likes 12 comments 12

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