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

5440+ 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.

Creative nonfiction Short Stories – Page 10 of 363

All Aboard The Excuse Train

Submitted to Contest #299

Is it sad or is it funny? I mean if you look at it from every angle you can certainly see it being both sad and funny. It’s sad because time is being wasted. It’s as simple as that. I’m always saying on a daily basis that “time is a thief” and yet I still treat it as it’s a constant. I think it’s insane that 22 years have passed since my freshman year at college but it feels like it was yesterday. I suppose that I could see that as a blessing. A mental time capsule of sorts. Being able to be in that very moment back in 2003 first day of coll...

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LimeLight

Submitted to Contest #299

[very mild cussing] We sat in a pub, not realizing it was open mic night. I already had three drinks, Macallan 18 on the rocks. My go-to because I liked the taste and knew I was not driving tonight. None of us were. We will call rideshare, most likely Lyft because I have credits!My three friends hammered at me to get onstage and make people laugh. That’s why I had three drinks, and Russ ordered the fourth. Don and Rick, well, they saw what Russ was doing and, being smaller bits of asses themselves, joined in. After that fourth, I was ready. ...

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A Story about... Love licenses, Child Rearing and getting Paid

Submitted to Contest #299

Every two years in California you have to renew your marriage license or the police can come into your bedroom and take the kids out of the stomach. It’s really weird and I’m greatful it hasn’t happened yet. But this year I got a notice, DOG Certification Required, in addition to paying the normal marriage license fees and getting a red sticker to put on my wife. She forced me to get my marriage registration tattooed on my left finger while I was drinking. I just pay for the tattoo number removal and then get the new one zipped on every year...

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Guilty of Despicable Behaviors-A Lost Cause

Submitted to Contest #298

Prompt: Write a story abut someone seeking forgiveness for something. Guilty of Despicable Behaviors-A Lost Cause The clanking of my chains was loud as I entered the room. Menacing eyes looked me over as I scuffled across the floor to the front of the room. My body labored under the weight of my restraints. A chain around my waist stole my freedom. Both my hands and ankles were shackled by the heavy leg irons that were chained around my mid-section. I felt strong hands stop my motion going forward. Then those hands pushed my shoulder...

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The Garden

Submitted to Contest #298

It was the summer I graduated college, the kind of summer that feels like it belongs only to you. It took me six years but the degree and the summer was all mine to do whatever I wanted with it. The days stretched long and slow, glimmering with heat and possibility. I was still shaking off the remnants of a dead-end relationship that had exhausted itself, full of apologizes and unfulfilled promises. I had stayed longer than I should have, holding on out of comfort and fear, rather than accepting the inevitable. But that summer, I felt like I...

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Cat and The Fish

Submitted to Contest #299

Don’t interact with a Catfish!My short-lived Tale of my experience with a Catfish. He was the most aggressive one I’d ever gotten a comment from. His message was so sweet I just had to pursue him.I posted something and this strange older man (I’m 34) commented, “Good morning beautiful woman (smiley faces with hearts) your posts wonderful. Nice to meet you I been observing some comments lately and I find you very interesting and clever, looking so charming and beautiful. I will be this happiest man on earth if only I can become friend I will ...

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The Sloth Sanctuary Social Club

Submitted to Contest #298

The Sloth Sanctuary Social Club Neil, Natty’s husband, left her for a much younger woman, and at the time, she failed to recognise what a colossal favour he had done her. Lonely and distressed, Natty left the city that had been her marital home and moved to London. Despite still spending her working days in a mundane office job, she began to be offered life opportunities beyond her wildest dreams. As part of a new marketing initiative at her finance company, she applied to represent it in Borneo, working alongside a well-known animal chari...

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Phoenix

Submitted to Contest #298

I felt myself being pushed off the edge of a cliff by some invisible force and the feeling of losing my footing and being in mid-air caused a great sense of panic in my body, the fall lasted only a few seconds but to me, it felt like an eternity. I fell into the ocean and felt the air being knocked out of my lungs, I was drowning with no power left in my body to try to swim and save myself. All of a sudden I heard: "Lilly, wake up!"That’s when I opened my eyes and jumped up from my bed:“Phew, I’m still alive!”I knew the dream was trying to t...

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My Week at Club Dread

Submitted to Contest #299

Today, I’m going to talk about mental health. Don't panic; it's my mental health, not yours— It's not like I'm handing out surprise therapy sessions!I know. Talking about mental health is not your typical comedy event material. You might think it's like chatting about root canals in a candy store or speaking about calories over birthday cake. But it's important to talk about it because, back in the day, talking about mental health was taboo. It was like being in Italy and asking for pineapple on your pizza! But we must talk about it to chip ...

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I Am a 60-Year Old Ballet Doctor

Submitted to Contest #298

I Am a 60-Year Old Ballerina Doctor March 03, 2016, was that fateful day when I started taking classical ballet lessons. I was a 51 year old medical doctor, specializing in Internal Medicine, in active, full time clinic and hospital practice and yet, driving home from work that day, I happened to glance and see the sign for Acts Manila Ballet School, took a photo of it, and called the number. To my surprise, the director herself, Teacher Chelo Gemina, answered. That first conversation was pivotal as it set in motion my journey into b...

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Maybe I Should Keep the Mothballs

Shortlisted for Contest #299 ⭐️

In my twenties, when I left the nest to rent a tiny flat, my mother, always practical, gave me a box of mothballs.“Keep them in your drawer to fend off moths. You don’t want holes in your garments.”Two years later, I moved to a larger apartment. The mothballs came with me, just in case. They remained buried and forgotten at the back of a drawer for over four decades.Life guarantees challenges. Over the years, stuff accumulated. When basement storage space ran out and overstuffed closets turned into avalanches, I resorted to using my balcony ...

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Things Adults Say (That Don't Make Sense) As overheard, misunderstood, and overthinked by me, age 11¾

Submitted to Contest #299

Have you ever noticed adults love to talk? Half the time, they’re not saying anything that makes sense. The other half, it’s just them trying to shut you up without even answering you. Lucky for you, I hear everything—and I mean everything. Just keep reading and you’ll see what I mean, I’ve cracked the parent clap-back code.Here’s the lingo. Trust me when I say, this information will make your life easier once you understand what parents are really saying versus what they actually mean. Don’t let them we know because they might change it or ...

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The unwanted Acceptance

Submitted to Contest #298

West Africa, Liberia, 1992: shooting, killing, shouting, famine, and destruction. Can a child survive in a place like this, where most young boys are given a gun to shoot their friends, family, and innocent citizens? It’s a place where children are no longer looked upon as children but as potential killers, where parents and families have to leave each other behind to die or stay together and watch each other get killed before their eyes. This is not a place to give birth now, Momma. Not now. Not in the condition of this country. But Momma h...

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Forgive or bleed open heart

Submitted to Contest #298

I tiptoed back up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs it began to squeak. “Oh no, I can’t let her see me.” So, I went back down the first half of the stairs slowly. I had to think of another way. It was cold outside, and I could hear her walking around upstairs. So I went into the basement door and grabbed the first coat I could see with my slippers already on my feet. I quickly wrote a note to aunt Musu saying, “I’m sorry Mommy” and did what I knew best. Slowly I opened the front door, trying to prevent it from squeaking. A few minutes later...

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Blooming through the fire

Submitted to Contest #298

Being eighteen at the time didn’t mean that I had the knowledge of what to do. It was just something to please him, not me, because I felt no pleasure at all. In the times where I didn’t want to do it and I told him no, I still felt like I had to. He would say things that made me feel like that was the only option. I had the love of my aunt and my cousins but I guess that feeling the love of a man was much better. As much as I felt something wasn’t right and as much as I was emotionally disconnected, I would still lay there as he penetrated ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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