Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Broken Pieces
Sometimes I have everything to say but nothing at all comes out. The letters get stuck in my teeth, cut my gums. I chew them up
Heather HublerPublished 2 days ago in Poets
The Aquarium Challenge Winners
We never have to look far for unexpected interpretations of our prompts, and this Challenge was no different. A simple sentence- "Write a story about an aquarium" - gave us a kaleidoscope of stories. There were aquaria in space, humans in aquaria, animals escaping their glass enclosures and others finding comfort within the glass. There was glass that cracked and glass that could not be broken, to say nothing of the characters’ hearts and emotions- fragile, intricate, hardened, broken. Some Creators lamented the aquarium while others celebrated its beauty.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished a day ago in ResourcesSeven Christmas Things I Learned In Five Minutes
There are all sorts of interesting histories behind our favorite holiday. From what things mean to the validity of how we view some traditions, Christmas is open to interpretation. Here are seven of the craziest facts about the holiday that I could find in five minutes. You won’t believe some of them and I’m sure you’ll disagree with one or two.
Jason Ray MortonPublished 5 days ago in FYI
Peek Inside Bob Guccione’s Office Through his Archives
One of the first steps of the archival process is to inventory each item in a collection. This undertaking occurs after background research, which for this collection included watching archival interviews with Bob Guccione and reading many issues of Omni, and before physically rearranging any items. Observing thousands of original sketches, illustrations, and scribbles, reveals the inner workings of Guccione. His sketchbooks and drafts support the understanding of Bob as a constant thinker, entrepreneur, and innovator, as well as confirm other facts key to understanding the OG Collection.
OG CollectionPublished a day ago in FYI
LULA
Susan smiled, putting her mobile on the kitchen table. ‘That's it. Dolores says we've been matched. They have a child they want us to meet next week.’
Agathos DaimonPublished 2 days ago in FamiliesWhy I'll never win a challenge
Alright, I'll admit I may have exaggerated a little in the title, just to get your attention. Did it work? In truth, always and never are far too big words for so little a confession I have to make. You see, I have a vice. Call it a downside, an indulgence, or a weakness if you prefer.
Claire GuérinPublished 3 days ago in Confessions
High-ku Challenge Winners
Out of respect for Matsuo Bashō, and in honor of his invention of the haiku in sixteenth century Japan, this post will be brief.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 3 days ago in Resources
Write Here, Write Now: What is Plant Blindness by Farmer Nick
From Write Here, Write Now: A Vocal Podcast, What is Plant Blindness by Farmer Nick. Farmer Nick is well known across the internet for his inspiring calls to lead a greener life, but this episode gives a window into Nick’s writing. After a reading of his essay, “What is Plant Blindness,” Farmer Nick sits down with host Erica Wagner to get personal about how a life filled with plants has taught him how to be the person he wants to be.
Write Here, Write Now: A Vocal PodcastPublished 3 days ago in Resources- Supported by: Ollie
Prioritizing my Pup’s Health: Why I Switched to this Fresh Food Option
Oh, Teddy. He’s my main man! And everyone else’s, too. We all love seeing Teddy on camera—and of course, I want him to be as happy and as healthy as possible, both on camera and off.
TEDDY @TeddygramnycPublished 4 days ago in Petlife The Dance
It’s all become a dance now… It starts in my mind and moves throughout the limbs of my body. A move to the left: “Can I start you out with some drinks?”
Susan DownsPublished 4 days ago in PoetsAlternate Reality: Gaston's Story
To my loving daughter, Belevia, My only goal in raising you was to ensure you had the future you deserved, a path paved by your own free will, and not by what is expected of you. You can have a family and be a wife and mother, like your mother and the women around you, or you can venture out of this town, and explore the world, defy the limitations others try to push onto you. Or...really who says you can’t be a mother and explore the world at the same time? You can do anything you set your mind to. However, I fear I may not live to see the adventures you set out on. After I have passed I want to leave you with one final story, of how I met, and lost, the one woman I truly loved.
Victoria RiveraPublished 5 days ago in Fiction
Waiting to go to School
Malika wrapped her small fingers around the stainless steel tumbler for warmth as she stepped into the crisp, foggy mountain dawn. Her bare feet gently thudded on the ground as she moved to sit on the stair that surrounded the one-room mud hut she called home.
R. J. RaniPublished 7 days ago in FictionTips That Will Lead You Nowhere.
For the next few moments, I ask that you please do your best to leave your ideas or beliefs at the door. They will be there when this is over. For now…just listen.
Samantha DrobacPublished 5 days ago in Humans
I’m Not Thankful To Be An American
Well, it’s Thanksgiving Weekend 2022. A day of family, friends, food, and thankfulness. I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m thankful for many things this year. One of the new ones for me is being thankful for being a writer. I couldn’t say the same last Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for the opportunity to write so many blogs and to make so many wonderful friends. It’s been awesome to have a voice these past 11 months.
Jason ProvencioPublished 6 days ago in The Swamp
Some Alternate Poets
Introduction When you were at school who liked poetry really? I think I hated Shakespeare but it may just have been the way I was taught and how the works were actually presented to me. I do like a lot of Shakespeare though find some a bit over the top.
Mike Singleton - MikeydredPublished 7 days ago in PoetsSecond Place in Christopher Paolini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge
Qapkas
Everything was orange, starting with the trees that ringed the clearing: aspen, birch, cottonwood, maple, and the larches whose needles paled to gold every Fall.
Jen GossooPublished 25 days ago in Fiction
An Artist's Triumph
I grew up in a home where there was art all around me. My father was an avid art collector, and his passion included art magazines and books. Not only that but he was an artist himself, or more accurately what used to be called a “Sunday Painter”, which meant that he painted as a hobby. It was hardly surprising then that I soon developed a keen love for art, and began drawing pictures from a very young age, something that my father encouraged.
Tristan BiggsPublished 7 days ago in Motivation- Second Place in Christopher Paolini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge
Ember and Sky
The smell reached her first. It wasn’t her kind, nor was it Elven or Dwarf. She’d smelled this scent only a few times before; the first time was long ago when her dam taught her to hunt and track. They’d come across a wide trail that cut through a lush pine thicket. Her dam stilled her before she could move forward into the clearing.
Kelly BelmontPublished 30 days ago in Fiction 
Wednesday, the Netflix series that revives the gothic genre
Netflix premiered Wednesday, an eight-part series that centers on Wednesday, the eldest daughter of the Addams family. She was expelled from the high school she was attending due to a nasty incident involving the water polo team and two bags of piranhas. Her parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams decide to enroll her in Nevermore Academy, which specializes in educating underprivileged children. As she tries to forge her own destiny at the school, where her parents' legacy takes on great importance, Wednesday soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving murders in a nearby town.
Thanksgiving in Sicily
Heavenly aromas filled the air of our Sicilian townhouse with such density you could almost taste them. Conversation hummed in the air, a strange, beautiful medley of Italian and English from our Italian and American guests that was as familiar to me as breathing. After thirteen years in Sicily, I understood both, but I didn't have time to listen much, rushing around as I helped my parents with the finishing touches of the meal.
