1. The fourth-grade mothers learn that one of the fourth-grade girls, Jade, is missing. Their sons and daughters announce this at the dinner tables. The children are reluctant to provide the news. Nothing like this has happened before, and they don’t know how the...
We have narrowed down the total submissions for this challenge to 12 stories for the shortlist. We're making final decisions now and will announce the winner early next week! It's always so fun to see how writers interpret these challenge prompts. HR The Librarian...
We're so thankful to partner with Judge Aimee Bender on this prize. She was so impressed with the shortlisted stories that she chose co-second-place winners, so we will honor four stories with prize money and publication! 1st Place: To the Tower by Skyler Melnick 2nd...
My daughter’s walking me through her sandcastle. She brings me in through the garage weight room, which opens up into a two-story climbing wall. Before I can test that out, my wife, Anna, yells for me to come see the downstairs bathroom. Kaylee has crafted one of...
After she gave birth, she could hardly sleep because she was either leaking milk or blood, or both at the same time or because she heard every sound the baby made—the widening of his thin lips while dreaming of a past life to his little fingers opening from a fist...
My face turns into my aunt’s face as I age. Now we know what she would have looked like at 35, 37, 40, 42. Lost in a gaze. Cigarette in hand, land of left-handed thoughts in her brain. Keep speaking while I rest a while in here, leaning back into the carseat of my...
Clouds like spores riding the gusts of wind, still raining, no beach today. We're lying on the couch together, heads on opposite ends, my smooth legs sliding over his brittle, hairy shins. He wants to feed me yogurt, but I can't reach. I stick my tongue out, then open...
When I grew breasts, I stopped taking the bus to school. Instead I walked along the edge of the wetlands that protruded like a dank finger between my home and school. It was seven and a half times longer than the walk to the bus stop, but it was safer to be alone....
Let’s say they believed her. Let’s say she was born into a different age. That she wasn’t the one who burned. Or: Maybe in another life, she is the favorite camp counselor. She teaches the kids to ride horseback. She tells them to get back up when they fall. She wipes...
We carry out the unction for our aging father on the dining room table, anointing him with a variety of substances: stale lake water, ripe oil that dripped down the jagged walls of caves back home, that spiced, buttery potion that our mother makes just like her own...
I ran over a nightjar with my car. It wasn’t my fault—it sat there roosting in the right lane of the road. I was on the phone with my brother when it happened; he’s apprenticing in ear-nose-throat. He’d changed rotations, went straight there from gyno. They’re all...
Twenty-five fresh and original takes on this contest's themes are headed to our guest, Judge Aimee Bender! We can't wait to reveal her selections! Dear Goldilocks Heart of Stone The Incantation The Nesting Doll Paradigm The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep Heterothermy He is...