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

460+ People of color Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. The world is colorful and diverse, and so your reading list should be. Discover a multitude of experiences and perspectives with this collection of short stories written about and by people of color.

People of color Short Stories – Page 4 of 31

TRUE ADVENTURES OF A TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN JAMAICA, W.I.

Submitted to Contest #263

TRUE ADVENTURES OF A TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN JAMAICA, W.I. I was a skinny, but highly energetic and athletic child.  At ten, I had just begun to wear glasses. I was proud to be the best friend of Peggy.  She was fourteen and very smart.  She knew ‘everything’, I was certain.  She told me that I would soon get my ‘menses’; which would mean that I could have children: but she warned me it would only happen when I had sex.   Then she explained what ‘sex’ was.  Sex, she explained, is an i...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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JOYce.

Submitted to Contest #261

I was doing the same thing I did every day; absentmindedly, driving home for lunch after my morning work routine was finished. I was fortunate to work just a few miles from my home, when ahead of me on the shoulder, I noticed a small, African American woman, in a white dress, a tattered crocheted shawl covered her shoulders in an attempt to escape the unpredictable chill of the late October mountain winds in the lake communities.  She wore a raggedy blue backpack secured across...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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Thank you Henry!

Submitted to Contest #261

Any other night, Dad was at the table waiting for us, his four sons, when Mom called us in for supper. Tonight, Dad was on the phone so as we walked into the kitchen, Mom did that “shhh” thing with her finger in front of her lips. We quickly quieted down and found our seats at the table. We could hear Dad talk, but he wasn’t saying much, “Ok, sure, I understand. Ok, I’ll let them know. Ok, thanks.” He untangled the stretchy phone cord and hung the handset back in its cradle on the wall. He quickly settled i...

9 likes 3 comments 3
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Unpredicatable, irresistable, you

Submitted to Contest #260

“I quit.” Teresa strode through the open door of the luxurious corner office, attempting to rein in her anger. “And you can’t force me to take a business trip I've already refused two weeks ago. Others can easily take my place, and I don’t see any of them being pressured.” She tried to maintain a dignified and confident stride on the new 4-inch heels she’d started wearing a few months ago.Though she loathed ditching her comfortable Converse collection for such unsensible shoes, it was the only way that she, at barely five-foot-five, could ha...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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Why Haven’t You Gotten Married?

Submitted to Contest #259

I like my own company, you know, being indoors. It’s quiet, calm, and quaint. Did I mention that it was quiet? Everything I need, I have at home. For some reason, my family keeps dragging me outside to “mingle”. Like I don’t know what’s best for myself. “Hey.” “What’s up?” “You coming to our event tonight?” “Uh, no. I wasn’t planning on it.” “Apologies…” “It’s okay. I just need more time.” “What I meant to say was, you are coming to our event tonight. I already put your name down.” “But I don’t want…” “Do I make myself clear?” “Yes.” “Yes, w...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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“I’ll know it when I find it.”

Submitted to Contest #258

My father never had a problem with patience, he made it look easy. The anticipation of finding something worth having seemed to keep him calm. He was so cool.  I followed in his footsteps. My vision was never the best, but I had an eye for details. Mom said that’s how you find God, so I practiced daily. Indeed, it is a virtue. For years I adjusted my lens, and toggled my viewfinder, all in search of something. He was the photographer for all of our family reunions. He had this phrase that he would say over and over again before shooting...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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A Ring for the Fugitive Princess

Submitted to Contest #255

It was a night of velvet and desire. Faris sat with his palms twisting frantically in his lap. He had escaped the palace and wandered listlessly through the garden. The air was thick, and he breathed in the faint sweetness of midnight. Faris's hands shook as he untied his turban, fingers clumsily tugging at the fabric. He ruffled his hair, undoing the crusting gel that itched him so. He was tired, and she was not there. Faris did not belong here. He was not truly a prince. Faris’s wife, Nova, had disappeared a few months prior. They liv...

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My Unseen Miracle

Submitted to Contest #253

As I neared the remaining five minutes, I sought shelter in the shadow of the central column. While her head swivelled above it, she looked around and down at the ocean of pilgrims surrounding us. To me, she gave nothing but her back. To the multitudes of gazes converging towards the sun, she sprinkled the level of respect that only cocktail sticks in a pineapple hedgehog would command. On closer look, what initially appeared as a stone-cold pillar was the tense muscle protruding from the side of her neck when she ran her inspections. That w...

6 likes 4 comments 4
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Unspoken Rules

Submitted to Contest #253

Unspoken RulesBy: Justin MarloweJanuary 1, 1900; 2:22 a.m. Annabelle Louise Douglas was born at the Mt. Ararat Citizens Baptist Medical Center in Talladega, Alabama, which was the newly formed hospital to treat the colored residents of the town. She was the first, and only child born to Thomas and Helen Douglas. Labor pains were coupled with the clamorous yelping of drunken white townspeople on horseback ringing in the new year. The majority of the black citizens celebrated in a more clandestine manner. Such a miraculous event was occur...

12 likes 1 comment 1
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The Fantasy of Oblivion

Submitted to Contest #252

At the bottom of the bottle she found no genie, no answers to her burning questions, and no cure to the gnawing ache that threatened to consume her…….no peace at all for her troubled mind, only the void of oblivion.“Hello, Papa.” She said mechanically as she accepted the call. “How are you?“I’m very good, my daughter. How are you?” Her father responded.“I’m fine.” She said flatly.The silence lingered peppered with an unasked question.What do you want now?She heard him sigh and braced herself.“I don’t know how to say this so I’ll just say it ...

9 likes 5 comments 5
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It's Called Karma, Baby!

Submitted to Contest #252

Please enjoy a tale from the Hotel Baku, formally dubbed ‘The Ass and the Shrew’.You see, the co-managers here don't see eye-to-eye. Mr. Tall is 6’ 7” and Ms. Small grows on his thigh. They share a chair that’s bigger than their desk. A melded clump of limbs that’s actually grotesque.While holding this position, yes - you must embrace tradition. On the other hand, times are changing and our guests are wide-ranging. Hotel Baku sits inside the gates of a luxury resort. You can enter by docking in a private eastern port.Enter the lobby; enjoy t...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun

Submitted to Contest #252

CW: Contains themes of drug trafficking, violence and profanity.Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun“Ay yo, Mo-Mo, maybe you should be careful what you wish for. Things is basically goin’ all right now but they can get worse real quick I think. We can prolly smooth this shit out. We should try and talk wit them, for starters at least. Shit.”He just looked at me, with something dark and dangerous swimming through the shallows behind his gray-green eyes.Sure, it would have been easy to just go along with the rest’a them but my pops raised ...

14 likes 13 comments 13
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The Underground Library of The South New Order

Submitted to Contest #251

The mission was simple: destroy. The savage men who stood, arm-in-arm, were locked, stone-faced and stoic, blocking the perimeter of the only standing hospital of the South New Order. Sweat beamed down their brown, marred foreheads, stinging the open wounds that marked their unreadable faces. They’re not men, they told us. Look at them! They aren’t human! I looked into one pair of eyes - golden, deep and mysertious, but vulnerably pleading with me, wordless. What could I do? These could be the men who butchered my brother. These could be the...

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The crux of a matter

Submitted to Contest #249

Natasha was running down Shaftesbury Avenue in Theatreland to her job interview at a civil service secret location. She would have loved to have her sister’s artistic talent but the lure of real power – to be a government adviser, was her dream job. In the education department. Tash, as her friends called her, had labored away for years as an assistant headteacher – the youngest in her borough at twenty-eight, so young she was profiled in the local paper- the borough she worked in, rather than the picturesque Surrey where there was nothing t...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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Arabian Nights

Submitted to Contest #249

Rising deliberately from her cross-legged seat, spine uncoiling lazily, the dancer held everyone’s attention. Fully erect, she paused. Then her body began a slow ripple from belly to toe, like a wave caressing a beach. A perfectly poised torso, arms fluttering only to complement the circular movement of her hips, highlighted the stillness of her shoulders. The soft, languid tones of the musicians began to increase pace. The dancer responded, her feet beating out a fast tempo in a call and response to the hollow resonance of the percussion. S...

12 likes 1 comment 1
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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