Skip to content

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Home
Logo Long Story Short Award - 2025
Short Fiction
 5 min

Second Chances

Christopher Wells

The rain-slick rooftop makes Ige's boots squeak as he runs. The thud, thud, thud of the guard's boots behind him matched his heartbeat. "Don't get caught." Her words echoed in his head as he leapt ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Top of the World

Ria Lisso

He says it's like watching skin under a microscope, or mushrooms fly. 
"I want to see mushrooms fly!" Anya bounces to His words, her mushroom-stem fingers reaching for His hand. He smiles. His grip ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Story of little Hope

Jennifer Anaya

There once lived a girl named Hope, in a grand house that never felt like home. She lived with her mother, stepfather, and two stepbrothers. People who filled the rooms with noise but none with ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 5 min

Null Experience

Sybil Lam

She'd fractured his ribs trying to save him. The chest compressions were useless now. Her breath was shallow; she'd dragged him out of the water, pulled his shoulder out of its socket. She hung ove ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The divine in sanity

Kiyoshi Hertell-Moraloki

The already barely audible sounds of at least a dozen shoes crunching against dead leaves in the distance became more muffled than before, even drowned out one might say, as he heard a familiar voice ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

House of Cards

Jessica Walsh

The sound of two fingers landing on the wooden table was soft, barely heard over the distant cheering. The card was drawn silently, slid across the table and placed face down. It was almost ironic ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Illuminations

B. Zara

This man was also well-acquainted with Death, so he invited It to tea on Thursday afternoon at his new beloved's rose garden. It seemed that Death was not stunned by this request, despite It being the ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Liftoff

Marcelle Creak

The first time Minnie spoke to me was on the production line. We worked across from each other for six months twisting doodads into gizmos until our calluses had calluses. It was as boring as it ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The last ember

Janice Fok

3:28 pm, December 20th, 1960 Dear Santa. Please make them stop hitting me. Please make them love me like how my neighbours love their children. 
Leo never had a happy childhood, and soon enough ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Not Quite A Prisoner

Lydia Foster

Dear Diary, I am still a prisoner of war. My captors may let me roam, but I know what I am. Today, as I looked upon the trappings of my prison, I felt the tug of hunger pull me from my hiding place ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

An envelope for my heart

Katlego Mogorosi

Clutter!
The sound gives way. My pencil case, now fallen, as my stationery scatters itself non-uniformly across the floor. I kneel to pick it up. A hand, unexpected, assists me. Its counterpart is ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

All in for love

Chan Ka Wing

 The waiting room was as quiet as a graveyard, where Sarah could not ignore the ticking of the clock.   She sat on the edge of the seat, her palms were wet, like a patient waiting for the final ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Salmon Run

Luke Ang

Like sinews, so blush returned to the waters.
A pulse of scales and fins flickering red and tender in the waterways. Aback the shoal was a fever, pregnant and brutal in its abundance, that had ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Ancestral Habits

Stephanie Rivera Marrero

When Conchita first opened her eyes to this world, she was floating face up in a tub full of cold, frothy white liquid that cooled off her scorching skin. Guillermo knelt next to her, just outside ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Time of Your Life

Lok Hei Wong

Chirp. 
Whoosh.
An oriole glides across the sky as all animals gather in a flower field, gazing upon the boundless starry night.  In a more secluded corner lies a clueless night-blooming ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The End of An Ant

Antnette Waw

"I'm hungry," my little sister Antanna whispered faintly, looking at me with her big, sad eyes.


The "Giants" living in the "outside world" had launched an attack on our colony. It happened on ...  [+]