Skip to content

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

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

Cordynation Initiative

Sruthi A

[FIELD LOG – PERSONAL ENTRY]
01/07/5348 21:45
Connect. Evolve. Belong. 
I see that everywhere now. 
On buildings, posters, holograms – pulsing with a gentle rhythm, like the city itself is ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

R100 (One hundred Rand)

Satya Pooja Bandaru

R100 
You stand there in line with R100, clutched between your seasoned hands. Not too little of an amount but not too grand. The flimsy piece of blue paper that you easily give away at each race ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Kill a Reflection

Ming CHEN

In the autumn of 2222, Pseudo turns one hundred—merely a fifth of his woven genetic lifespan. Time, a scarce resource for most, not for him.  Careful! A smooth sea never makes a skilled sailor.  ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 5 min

By The Cathedral

Yixin Liu

It was a sticky, wet day when I fell in the mud. I was wearing a raincoat and boots, but I could feel the mud, sucking at my body through a layer of rubber, as if trying to pull me into the ground. I ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Heroic Ambitions

Owam Ntlemeza

Chilling morning air greets the waking face of a boy as he sits up from the warm comfort of 
his dreams. Dreams where soaring was nothing but ease, nothing but gliding along streams of 
wind as he ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Fifth Street Bandit

Daniel Wheelock

When Josie Rivers told her husband Rob that she would leave him if he ever gambled again, she meant it. This was after the intervention, after Rob had surreptitiously drained their bank account ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Through my window

Lehlogonolo TLadi

Being a woman in her thirties with nothing to spend her winter break aside from chores, really does get exhausting. Sometimes when the boredom gets the best of me, I look into Rosy's life. Rosy has ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

All In

J. Shakespeare English

His mother was his hero. Sometimes he hated her for that.
In the mirror, his father's face–high cheeks, raptor nose, hazel eyes–but the rhythm of his life's music was his mother's heartbeat. ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Blue Harmonic

Puturen Sungti Amer

Someone once asked me what I'd show an alien if I ever met one.
I said I'd show them my harmonica and play some real good music.
Although, maybe they already have their own version of it.
I can't ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

The Seabird

Danielle Beks

The sea battered itself against the base of a tower, starved and hungry. The setting sun glittered on its back, burning orange streaking across the dark water. A lonely seabird wheeled through the ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

A story heard by the moon

Tatiana Mell

In the darkest hour of the night, when the silence was louder than every whisper, he was still there. At his desk, waiting for words to come out. Everyone asleep, only he was left. Searching ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

The Last Forgiveness

Daeven Thorne

They sat there in that dimly lit room, on the ratty quilt that covered the rickety wooden bed. The air was cold. A thin breeze slipped through the cracked window, carrying the sharp, salty breath of ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Baby Steps

M K

The deadline is in a few hours. My heart has been racing every time I remember that I need to decide which draft to submit. I have pushed the responsibility of making the decision for a week, but I ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Bubble-Throwers

bonniejean alford

I had seen him before. I never expected anything to happen. We were from different crowds. We hung out with different people. Sure, I knew some of his friends, but not well enough to get close to ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 5 min

Blight

Jules Wallinga

The kitchen looks just like I remember it. Green walls peeling in all the right places, battered wood floors. And the sagging cabinets, painted white, with their doors that never quite close right. ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Cereal bowl

Carmen Rodriguez

My mom is not the best at cooking. Since I have memory, she always does the same breakfast and dinner. Lunch is when she gets creative: chicken with bacon, zucchini with some sort of sauce and ham ...  [+]