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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of creative nonfiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Creative nonfiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. The creative nonfiction stories on this page deliver exactly what it says on the tin: true stories told in weird and wonderful ways.

Creative nonfiction Short Stories – Page 5 of 10

Forty Minutes between Us

Submitted to Contest #337

For nine years the road was the shape of us. Forty minutes of two‑lane highway through deep East Texas—pines and radio static, no curb, no city lights—no wifi, became the familiar. Loving him was never the hard part. Keeping us - required ritual, repetition, and a refusal to let absence become silence.We treated time like currency and learned to budget it. Friday arrival was a single line—Poppy I'm so glad you're here—that ended the scramble and started the weekend. Saturday had a sacred hour—no phones, no nothing—where we talked about every...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Mail Order Bride

Submitted to Contest #337

My second great-grandfather, William James Powley, was born in 1849 in Auckland, New Zealand, and at 19, he married Letitia Murphy, who was a lot younger, from Ireland, in 1868.We know through stories that were handed down to our family. That Letitia was a mail-order bride, and there's nothing wrong with that. We were told that they were a loving, caring family, and Letitia educated her children and family about the hardship and starvation caused by the Irish potato disease called a blight, and how badly the English Army was treating the Iri...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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My Time At The Oasis

Submitted to Contest #336

Nestled in the center of a small New England town stands a three-story nondescript brick building. Once home to a community hospital, it now serves as a Mental Health/Rehab/Medical Detox Facility. Privately owned and appropriately licensed.New vinyl floors line the halls, adorned with Wayfair furniture and obligatory generic slogans of: Resilience, Mind Over Matter, and Endless Possibilities Start Here, found in modernized rustic frames on the walls. Advertised as Low Patient Ratio, Medically Assisted Detox, Patient Centered Care with Inner ...

7 likes 2 comments 2
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The Shape of Wanting

Submitted to Contest #337

It started like any other summer night: crickets chirping in the tall grass, the day’s heat softening into something breathable, the faint smell of woodsmoke drifting through the air. We sat side by side on the concrete steps that sloped down toward the river, pretending this was just another night—another shared drink, another laugh that lingered a little too long.But I had been waiting for something. I just didn’t know what yet.There was a quiet electricity between us, threaded through glances and accidental touches, through the way time s...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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Squad 546

Submitted to Contest #336

The bullet had pierced through the supposedly “bullet-proof” vest. She looked at me in horror as she hit the ground. Before I could even move, she was lying in a pool of her own blood. Blood had stained her blue shirt where the bullet had pierced the vest. Blood was dripping down her shoulder, and down her arm. She was dead, I was sure of it. All I could do was watch. Fighting every impulse to scream out, lash out, and cry out. The tears burned in the back of my eyes. She was gone. That was it. A bullet whizzed past my face, and I could hea...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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...and that's how she found out

Submitted to Contest #336

“Well… based on the directions Santa left on Christmas morning - we’re only about 2 miles from the house he got us for the weekend. Who’s excited?”“I am!!!”“Me!”“I’m the most excited!”“I’m excited to be outta this damn car.”“DDDaddd!!”“Well, in dad’s defense – it has been a long day for him. We all got in a good nap while he drove us to the airport this morning. But, with that being said, he could be a little more gracious… ya know… since Santa planned all of this for us and since his 3 children are within earshot.”“Sorry, my bad… yes! I’m v...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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Giving Blood

Submitted to Contest #336

This is not what I signed up for! I realized this when I heard the screaming in my classroom for the first time. I was 20 years old and teaching at a junior high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Most of the students were bigger than me and some looked as old as I did. “He’s going to kill her!” A large boy was chasing a girl around the room, somehow avoiding the desks with other seated students as he ran. Unbelievably he had a window pole in his hands. (A window pole is a large wooden implement with a brass hook at the end of it. It was ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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At night I dream I have lived many lives

Submitted to Contest #336

My shadow left when I was asleep, unseen under the blanket of night. Unheard under the deafening noise of stillness. She left me to pursue another life, removed herself from the tumour of my physical form, so no barrier of futile hesitation or imaginative misfortune could halt her. She had grown tired of the follies of my constitution. Fight-or-flight never existed within me; in the face of impending doom, of consequence, I was a deer on a dark road. Unable to even react, only ever a witness to my downfall. I had watched my life over the yea...

14 likes 0 comments 0
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This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, But It’s What I Do

Submitted to Contest #336

There’s a clarity that comes from being kicked in the mouth; an alertness and awakening that not even the strongest stimulant can rival.As her foot connected with my jaw, it’s like time slowed down and I gained the ability to look back at all of my choices and wonder how exactly I ended up here. This isn’t what I signed up for.I signed up to put out fires. I became a fireman to crawl through the heat and the darkness of a burning building, not to change smoke detector batteries at 3 a.m.I signed up to save lives. I became a paramedic to rest...

12 likes 1 comment 1
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Red Flags

Submitted to Contest #336

I strategically placed my body perpendicular to the mob of women clustered around the usual spectacular display of blooms, from crimson to ox-blood black and everything in between. A specific bushel of hot pink roses beckoned, but their numbers were dwindling. Snagging the best flowers at the shop had turned into a sport, and I knew these other women were on the hunt for the same prize. I watched with disappointment as one woman lunged to pick up my precious pinky pies, when suddenly I saw another arm jut out from the crowd, grabbing the p...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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A Conversation With My Best Friend

Submitted to Contest #336

I have to get you out of my system. What’s going to be left? Something... Anything... Anything is better than this. You ruin every single good thing I build. Do I, or do we just build them so we can destroy them together? What makes you feel like you even built anything? I’ve built. I’ve built things. Undeniable fucking things that you’ll never take away from me. Go ahead, name a few. I’m a good friend. Yeah, and where are they all now? I’m a good son. Don’t kid yourself. I’m trying. That’s all it took? Your undeniable fucking things a...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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REPLY TO ALL

Submitted to Contest #336

REPLY TO ALLAn older lawyer once told me, “Adam, a man can’t practice law without saying the word, ‘shit.’” He also assured me that there’s a special god that protects lawyers: his name is “Ah Shit!” Most lawyers can out curse any sailor. I developed a colorful vocabulary of words that would “make a crow blush” and plenty of creative ways to put them together. I almost never wrote those words. But when I did write them…I couldn’t take them back.The real God—not Ah Shit—was working. Even when I hit “reply to all.”I was so frustrated with Chr...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The Breakup That Didn’t Stick

Submitted to Contest #336

“Ohh hiii cutie… I was just thinking about you.” “Well lucky I called then. What’s happening? You OK to talk?” “Yeah… I’m good. I’ve been working on my reflection notes since finishing my graveyard shift last night. Four pages… reading over them. Sometimes, I forget how insightful I can be.” “Oh... cool. Do you think it’s helping?” “Yeah… it’s good to get it all down. Some of these patients… they’re beyond help. I’ll send my notes to you.” “Ah… that’s okay. I don’t really understand your field that much… won’t be able to give you good feedba...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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The Irony of Wishing

Submitted to Contest #336

In a snap, the world flipped from an anxious, chaotic, unrelenting mess to order, calm and peace. The provider of this instant relief was one man; a simple, soft-spoken, introverted, unlucky young adult whose curiosity got the best of him. The result of his OCD not allowing him to let the smudge go involved his inability to be specific. Out of all humanity, he was the angriest, most anxious, depressed and distraught human on the planet. He was the only one left. All of humanity had vanished with a phrase, I wish for world peace. Before him,...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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Argument with a Dead Man

Submitted to Contest #336

Roxanne checked online to see if any information existed about her ex-husband, Arnold. She had heard Arnold and died. Curiosity drove the queries, not a strong desire for knowledge or vengeance.Well, maybe vengeance. Not the kind of vengeance that would do harm to anyone. The kind of revenge for the wrongs that man had inflicted on her. If he had died....only words.Curiosity raised its ugly head, when did Arnold die and where is he buried? The online check revealed Arnold was placed in the same cemetery as Jerry, Roxanne's beloved husb...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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