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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 2 of 363

Emotional Intelligence precedes Understanding

Submitted to Contest #302

TW: Contains themes of abuse and traumaI was once in a predicament. Years ago, I made the difficult decision to leave Austria and move to another continent. This decision was mostly but not entirely based on my abusive family and my insanely mentally, physically and sexually abusive mother. I know dear reader this is a concept which is difficult to grasp. Yet, this is a tiny part of the story of my past. Today I live in today only. I rarely look back. My mother, well the women who gave birth to my half siblings and me was a mentally defectiv...

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Almost, in Retrograde

Submitted to Contest #302

I don’t understand why he never texted, but I do understand the urge to pretend it was more than it was, if only to justify how much I liked it. One random weekend, weeks ago, I went to a housewarming party for a friend who had just bought her first apartment. She was new to the city, and in classic twenty-something fashion, the only acceptable way to christen the new place was by getting trashed. She invited our core crew–a tight group stitched together through a chaotic blend of high school, college, and home friend overlaps. The six of u...

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Why?

Submitted to Contest #302

For years, I asked: “Why?” Why, was I widowed at the age of 40? Why, was I left and abandoned to raise two children—age twelve and ten—alone? Why, was I entrusted to be the guiding light steering them through the uncharted waters of adolescence and their own silent and heavy ebb and flow of grief. A grief that I knew well because it anchors so deeply within the chest and remains hidden for as long as the mind remains unequipped to handle its messiness. I was 40 years old, a wife, a partner, a mother of two children—ages twelve and ten—an...

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The Weight of Silence

Submitted to Contest #302

Content note: This piece describes my personal journey toward healing following sexual assault. The narrative contains references to assault but uses non-explicit language throughout. Based on the prompt. “I don’t understand.” The Weight of Silence Forty-four years of silence. Forty-four years of carrying a secret that calcified inside me, growing heavier with each passing season. Who would have believed me anyway? He commanded respect, wielded power, occupied a corner office with a view. I was just the girl at the front desk — a voice that ...

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Lost in Translation: A Neurodivergent Journey Through Life

Submitted to Contest #302

I was ready. Probably more ready than I have ever been before taking a final examination at the end of a semester. Taking exams, any exam, tend to be an anxiety-invoking trigger for me. Even when I feel competent in my understanding, there’s always some small, lingering doubts that finds a way in. I am grateful that my professor had granted me the extension. It felt like a gift—one that allowed me a little more time to prepare and catch my breath. As the clock ticked away, I again began feeling both anxious and ready, so I decided to si...

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The Moth

Submitted to Contest #302

I don’t understand; what inherently makes me more entitled to living than the moth I just killed? Alone with it now in the dimmed silence of my empty apartment, I feel the makings of a spiritual dilemma all but stirring within me. I quietly resign myself to the inevitable process, bidding myself farewell. Why did I do it? Did I need to? I sink to my knees, centimeters away from the insect strewn now across my rotten wood floors. Now that it’s not buzzing all around in its dizzying quickness I take a good look at it. I realize, I’ve never ...

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Argument for Subtitles

Submitted to Contest #302

Subtitles can be pretty frustrating for people; however, they benefit more than just people with a loss of hearing. People with auditory processing delays, neurodivergent, ADHD, and Autisms– All could benefit from them subtitles too. You see, I can rarely make sense of oral discussions quickly in real time, but subtitles help me pick up on missed body language, intent, and seriousness (or lack thereof). I learn best by reading information, no YouTube videos for me. Yesterday, one of my husband’s sisters held a BBQ dinner and I found myself...

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Held Together by Wire

Submitted to Contest #302

Held Together by WireKrystal Renee My eyes clenched shut in fear of the artificial suns above me as I continued to scream, “You have to help me,” over and over. “Please help me.” The room was filled with sterile, composed, but bustling people, like a busy sidewalk. Each person had a job, a role, and a responsibility. None of them looked directly at me. I kept screaming, “Please help me,” as if I were begging along that very sidewalk. I was there for them, after all. Finally, as I began to tire, a man in a white coat appeared above me. He was...

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Language Learning in Saitama Prefecture

Submitted to Contest #302

Language Learning in Saitama PrefectureThere is a perpetual bustle in Tokyo. Shinjuku sits at its heart and is the gateway for all destinations North and West, channeling a relentless flow of people in and out of Japan’s magnificent capita city. Our new employer had received us at their head office in Shinjuku, wined and dined us amidst the skyscrapers, neon lights, and elegant restaurants. That year, they had had hired 4 Americans. Well three American — myself, Greg, Rick, and then Murat from Turkey who had just graduated at the University ...

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NanDa or Bust

Submitted to Contest #302

I’ve always had the gift of the gab—able to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere, as long as it was in English.Before arriving in China, I hadn’t seriously considered the possibility of a language barrier. I assumed everyone spoke at least a little English and that I, brimming with confidence, could talk my way around the world—until China defeated me.In Malaysia, I worked at a zoo placement arranged by an English charity. My supervisor spoke English, taxi drivers could hold their own, and the glossy malls were a breeze. I even befriended Awan...

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The perils of assisted living

Submitted to Contest #302

It was all a huge misunderstanding. And Marnie had started so well. The concierge had rung the bell at the back door. She had struggled with the heavy frame and finally pulled it open to find the young man standing there sheepishly holding up a small cage in which three cats of various ages and sizes had been squeezed. Her expressions reflected a range of emotions like the daily Melbourne weather they had left some months earlier: Surprise, joy, horror and then resignation. Fortunately, Pak Jono, her patient and long-suffering driver was sta...

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THE POOL

Submitted to Contest #302

THE POOL She is thinking back… 19-89. She was living in California. It was the exact day she found out about Earl. A year after her father died It was late at night… I don’t know what time it was. But it was dark where she was at. In fact, there were four of them there. Amy, her mom, Rick, and the guy who lived next door. His name, I don’t remember. Amy remembers waking up with this kid sleeping next to her. Uncomfortable. When she woke him up to go home, Rick and her mother were sleeping on the couch. That’s when it hit her. It was just...

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A Pan of Tomato Soup and a Blog about People’s Opinions.

Submitted to Contest #302

A Pan of Tomato Soup and a Blog about People's Opinions. Human's are some of the most complex creatures on the planet. Ask yourself how they can all be so different from each other yet share consistent basic needs? Some can be the cruelest, most violent, evil, inconsiderate, power hungry and selfish of the animal kingdom. Yet some have the other extreme of being the kindest, thoughtful, most selfless, good intentioned consideration and are the nicest of the animal kingdom.I get that most humans fall somewhere in between the extremes and lif...

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It started with the rice

Submitted to Contest #302

It started with the rice. A seemingly incidental telephone conversation, that unexpectedly marked the beginning of the end. She had called her Mom and her Mom had told her she had been looking everywhere for the rice. “I don’t understand,” she had said to her mom, “you’ve always kept it in the exact same place...” and then the panic had engulfed and gripped her. Tragedy so often hides within the detail of day-to-day mundanity. There had been more moments of concern recently, granted. A few months prior to this realisation, due to the ...

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My fault.

Submitted to Contest #302

Sensitive content warning. This story does contain the following trigger warnings;Substance abusePhysical violence and goreSuicide attempt She sat there, staring aimlessly at the infomercial playing across the screen. The blinds were pulled tightly shut, blocking out even a glimmer of light, suffocating me in its abyss-like darkness. I didn’t want to be here. I shouldn’t have gotten here first. I wanted to peel out of my own skin, let my soul slither across the floor and through the crack at the bottom of the front door. Her darker skin see...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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