Stories - Long Story Short Award - Fall 2020 - page 1 - Short Fiction

Short Fiction

4 min

How I Lie to Children

Have you ever been in a confined space with three to five small children? I have. I spend three hours each summer morning teaching kids how to sail. It’s fun, and I love it. But it’s also a special ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Persephone's Choice

Elizabeth Keeney

In the shade of a blooming magnolia tree, bows bowing under the weight of the fat pink blossoms, stood a pale god. He looked on as a woman with curly brown hair danced in the petals that fell with the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Solomon's Lines

Jesse Richmond

Fred tiptoed into his room and slid into his desk chair, casting a worried glance over his shoulder as he opened his laptop. Typing as quietly as he could, he logged onto Artium Obscurorum and ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Start With a Homicide

Samuel Cottam

“Go kill somebody,” said one of the boys.
“Go kill yourself!” A burst of laughter.
“That’s stupid!” said Dimitur.
“Disappear then, ah!” another one said.
“We’re stupid huh?” This one ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

I Want You to Live for Me

Alessandro Gemio

He just wished it would all end. The unbearable pain. The countless sleepless nights. The tears. The heartache.
There seemed to be no light at the end of this tunnel. Elizabeth had meant the world ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

The Day I Caught a Star

Melanie Kimball

I never saw the star my great-aunt gave me, but I could feel it. It was like a warm heartbeat pulsing between my hands. It didn’t burn me— “Stars don’t burn,” Aunt Naomi said, “they just give ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

House Warming

Jade Neptune

“We are all just walking each other home.” - Ram Dass

“In all that I am, I am art first.” This was my opening line as I shamelessly flirted with you over drinks that night. You had asked me ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

A Candle In The Night

Matthew Capel

He sat behind the desk in his office with his eyes closed, leaning slightly back into the chair. He held something in his left hand, resting it lightly against his temple. With his right hand he ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

No Less than 5 Pounds

Andrew Doty

In early October, in the forests of West Virginia, where the light of dusk fall is suffused with the red and green landscape of evergreen and oak, he carved a path along the mountain side too narrow ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Yellow Crayon

Sophie Houghton

Mr. Stesso was annoyed.

The 7:30 bus was late and an unshaven man with a large bag took the seat across from him two stops in. The bag cramped Mr. Stesso’s legs, and he could smell onions and ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Of Darkness

Josh Vance

There were two kinds of creatures. Those of darkness, and those of light.
They lived in their separate worlds––those of darkness stepping from shadow to shadow, and those of light from sunbeam to ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Shall I Compare Thee to a Circus Clown?

Kenley Kohls

Your eyes are green like freshly sprouted leaves, Noah wrote as John Denver's “Annie’s song” played tenderly in the background. No, that’s wrong. Her eyes aren’t the pale green of summer trees, or the ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

The Purpose Of A Tree

Thea Manning

Her blossoms open as the dawn warms her branches. “The purpose of this tree,” I sigh to myself, “is simply for the nourishment of animals’ bodies, and nourishment of my soul” A home to a bird family ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Full Bloom

Adithi Ramakrishnan

She can hear a lot in the silence.
The surprise, for one, from her teacher, as he looks at the jumble of letters on his roster.
The confusion, as he looks from her first name to her last, unsure ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Chartreuse

Katie Fastabend

This is a story of a girl named Chartreuse. She wore overalls with great big buttons on the front--bright, colorful plastic ones that matched her bright, colorful socks. Her socks were striped and ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Accra-pocalypse

Alixa Brobbey

The first day of the apocalypse, life in Accra was business as usual. Somewhere, miles away, politicians’ scrambled voices were heard on rarely-used airwaves. The voices' owners sweated through thei ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

The Human

Sarah Bodnar

The books in the library are organized by color, not topic. It’s annoying for humans like Stef, who can’t see anything lower than red or higher than violet. She walks into the library already knowing ... [+]

Short Fiction

1 min

Fleece

Karina Andrew

My roommate wanders into the kitchen just in time to see the pancake tower collapse.
Well, “collapse” might be a bit strong. I like the word “collapse” for its dramatic value, the implication that ... [+]