The story of the week for May 6 to 10 is…
What Remains by Susan Hunt
JENNY MATTERN: Sea-Sister
The sea delivers soft-edged bits of glass and storm-tossed shells.
On a high tide, it brought my sister, soft-edged and storm-tossed with hair like fire.
We railed against the waves when they stole her back.
Even now, my eyes comb the greedy sea for the gleam of her iridescent tail.
Jenny Mattern is a poet, a crafter of stories, and a cake-for-breakfast enthusiast who lives with her family in Montana.
GABE BONNEY: Wartime Mind
I want to climb behind his eyes. To crawl on my belly over enemy lines and see the shelling for myself.
Noetic civil war—red rain of spitfire sky; ground assaults below.
What chance does love have in his wartime mind?
Wait.
It’s…
a flag unfurling, bleached, bloody.
He surrenders.
Gabe has been writing and editing for 30 years, from her home base in Sydney, Australia. She doesn’t plan on being replaced by AI any time soon.
STORY OF THE MONTH: April 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for April were:
Cincinn by Piper Pugh
Moonshine by Deborah Tapper
What We Left Behind by Mari Kitina
Dishwasher by Alexa Yasmin Ferrer
The winner of the April 2025 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Dishwasher
KRISTINA WARLEN: All At Once, Almost
She was dying for so long, I learned to live with it. Then she died—and I forgot
how to feel.
She faded long before she was actually gone. It lasted forever, then ended in a second.
I still don’t know if I’m grieving or simply remembering how to live.
Kristina Warlen is a literary and speculative writer from Warrensburg, Missouri. Her work explores memory, impermanence, and emotional turning points in both flash and full-length fiction.
JS O’KEEFE: Leaving the Delta
a big old plantation house
or a drafty shack over the bayou
your home
before you set out
visit every corner to behold
what all not to miss
what all to forget
it’s your home you’re leaving behind
never to return
don’t wave good-bye
don’t talk to anyone
glide away
J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print and online literary magazines. See more at szjohnny.net.
SUZAN LINDSAY RANDLE: The Bookcase
I gazed longingly at the mahogany shelves, fingers itching. He’d left the key in the glass door.
As soon as his back was turned, I made my move. Ignoring the silver trophies on display, I slipped ‘Pride and Prejudice’ inside.
It was only one book but it was a start.
Suzan Lindsay Randle writes flash fiction, short stories and pocket novels. She lives in the UK.
SUSAN HUNT: What Remains
Fila stared at the map, tracing the 800 miles that lay ahead. Mules hitched, wagon loaded, farm sold. Nothing of home, of him, remained, save the shotgun he’d carried to the barn that day. She’d keep the shotgun as a reminder when memories of love and life wanted back in.
Susan Hunt is a retired developmental editor and technical writer. She writes for herself these days, imagining other lives in other times. She thinks that 50-words are just about enough for her attempts at fiction.
MIRIAM N KOTZIN: Lessons
A student said she wanted “a next egg”. Next egg. Expresso. Arlene had sacrificed oceans of cappuccinos to build her now-crushed 401(k). Now what?
“Why do we call it ‘nest egg’? What thoughts and feelings go with those words?” Arlene asked and, like Patience on a monument, waited for answers.
Miriam N. Kotzin writes fiction and poetry. She is the author of five collections of poetry, two collections of short fiction, and two novels—most recently the novel Right This Way (Spuyten Duyvil). Her 50-word stories have been published in 50-Word Stories, 50 Give or Take, and Blink Ink. She teaches literature and creative writing at Drexel University.
CHERYL SNELL: Puppy Love
It takes sixty-three days to whelp a puppy. Do that every few months and you’ve got yourself a pack. I’d be the leader, of course, padding after them, teaching them to say I love you. If you were here I’d show you. If you were here, though, I wouldn’t need to.
Cheryl Snell writes as revenge against reality. That’s her story and she’s sticking to it.