Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative 2nd Edition

Principal® Foundation, a global nonprofit organization committed to helping people and communities build financially secure futures, today announced one winner and 19 finalists for its Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative national short story contest that invited people to share stories about lived experiences with money.

Launched in 2023, Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative is a unique program and national short story contest created by Principal Foundation that uses the power of storytelling to help destigmatize and encourage conversations about money and personal finances. It is hosted in collaboration with The Center for Fiction, a national literary nonprofit, and Short Édition, a global publishing house.

A short-story dispenser at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library aims to build literacy and highlight the joy of reading at the push of a button.

A short-story dispenser at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library aims to build literacy and highlight the joy of reading at the push of a button. 

Mere hours after Tony Tallent, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s associate director for library experiences, installed a new push-button short-story dispenser he observed the magical spell the slender steel-and-glass kiosk cast over patrons.

The “story ATM” was introduced last summer at the South County Regional Library. Developed and managed by the French global publishing house, Short Edition, the 3-foot tall machine provides short stories, poetry and fiction “on the fly” and free of charge. 

The stories are dispensed at the touch of a button on a receipt-like piece of thermal paper about 2 inches wide and up to 18 inches long. No ink is used, as printing is performed by a heat-transfer process.

“One of our first users of the kiosk was a family from Austria that happened to be at the library that day,” Tallent recalls. “They had no idea what it was and had someone translating for them. They were thrilled when the story popped up. It was a joyous day.”

Eugene's Mahlon Sweet Field is home to a vending machine that dispenses free short stories, thanks to a partnership among the Eugene Public Library, the Eugene Public Library Foundation and the airport.Lori Tobias/For The Oregonian

Travelers can find all kinds of goodies in airport vending machines – candy, soda, cosmetics, electronics. But in Oregon, only at Eugene’s Mahlon Sweet Field can an airport vending machine dispense a good read. The airport houses the only Short Story Dispenser in the state.

The airport houses one of four Short Story Dispensers by the French publishing house Short Édition in the state (Wasco County Library hosts dispensers in The Dalles, Dufur and Maupin). The Eugene dispenser, however, is the most popular, producing the second most printings in the entire country, second only to that in the Planet Word Museum in Washington, D.C.

Library Dean Elizabeth Dill poses with one hand on a Short Édition Kiosk button and the other grasping short stories printed on the first floor of the University Library. Photo Credit: Delfino Camacho

Literature-loving students busy with schedules can now get a reading respite from a short story dispenser on the first floor of the University Library.

Made by French publishing house Short Édition, the library acquired the mechanical kiosk this July. 

“I saw it on LinkedIn; another University had one in their library, I think it was in Michigan, and that gave me the idea to do one here,” Library Dean Elizabeth Dill said.

“That was the first one I saw, and I thought, what a great way to do outreach for our library and our university community,” she said. 

CUHK Library has installed a new Short Story Dispenser in its main lobby to promote literature and cultivate a culture of reading and writing on campus.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Library has installed a new Short Story Dispenser in its main lobby to promote literature and cultivate a culture of reading and writing on campus.

The state-of-the-art Short Story Dispenser, created by French publishing house Short Édition, offers a unique, innovative approach to promoting leisure reading. Users can choose from three categories – “English”, “Chinese” and “CUHK works” – and receive printed short stories, essays, poems or comics on a long strip of paper, allowing them to read printed works during brief moments of downtime.

Le Distributeur d'Histoires Courtes est une borne qui imprime gratuitement et en aléatoire des histoires courtes à lire sur place ou à emporter.

Distraire, apaiser, donner confiance, créer du lien… les bienfaits de la lecture et de l'écriture se révèlent avec le programme Nouvelles de l'hôpital, d'après les résultats intermédiaires de l'étude d'impact. Une cinquantaine d'établissements adhèrent au dispositif. 

Principal Foundation, in collaboration with French publisher Short Édition and the literary nonprofit Center for Fiction, has announced a 2024 round of Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative, a contest launched in 2023.

Authors are invited to submit short works of fiction and creative nonfiction “that reflect lived experiences with money,” a project aligned with the Principal Foundation’s goal of boosting financial literacy. The submissions portal will be open through October 2.

La région Nouvelle-Aquitaine s’est lancée, en 2022, dans une expérience pilote favorisant, au moyen d’un distributeur à histoires, la lecture courte et l’écriture collaborative des élèves des lycées généraux, technologiques, professionnels ou agricoles. La boîte imprime des histoires courtes et des ateliers incitent les jeunes à les écrire.

Bradley Public Library is calling on writers from 3rd grade to adults to submit original fiction for their Short Story Cube. 

In 700 words or less, participants should draw inspiration from the quote: “The night sky, a cosmic abyss, holds the promise of mystery and adventure, beckoning wanderers like me to explore its depths.” 

Pecq - Un Distributeur d'Histoires Courtes pour patienter en lisant

Nous nous sommes déjà tous retrouvés dans la situation. Lorsque nous attendons notre tour par exemple chez le médecin ou à l'administration communale, il nous arrive régulièrement de sortir notre smartphone pour patienter.

Sandy Bexon. (File photo)

​​​​​​I used to think it was only writers who were extra aware of the different markets that welcomed us in, but I’m coming to know that readers also share that priority. Readers have supported independently-published books for a long time now, so that’s not new.

[...] Equally impressive is the Edmonton International Airport’s short story dispenser. Yup, along with the machines that drop sweet or salty snacks into your hands is a device that prints a one-minute or a five-minute short story. The idea is to keep travelers entertained while supporting local authors. Edmonton was the first airport in North America to offer this free reading opportunity and only the second in the world. Talk about taking the celebration of words to new heights.