Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
The Mind Games of Writing. Top Story - September 2026.
Every writer knows this moment. The document is open, the cursor keeps blinking away, and the blank page suddenly feels bigger than every idea bouncing around inside your head. The story is already there, at least in some form, yet the first sentence often feels harder to write than the final hundred pages of a completed manuscript.
By Christian Bassabout a month ago in Writers
empty space. Top Story - September 2026.
No one ever warned me about this type of emptiness. It follows the rhythm of that constant throbbing in the most hollow spaces of your mind. It is the type of emptiness that devours dreams at night. It wanders into the subconscious shadows of your nightmares, dragging all what is evil out with it.
By tatiana vitasabout a month ago in Poets
The Guardians Report. Top Story - September 2026.
Each year, as the Earth turns on its axis and spins round the wobbling sun, the light lessens by about three minutes a day at this time of year in this region of Canada. The blooms in the gardens, still reflect the glorious rays of sun that fall upon them, until the roars of the autumn winds chase the sweet whispering breezes and scents of summer away.
By Katherine D. Grahamabout a month ago in Fiction
Tomorrow is the Day. Top Story - September 2026.
Tomorrow is the day my husband goes to the neurologist it is the day I have been waiting for since June 21 Will she give him medication to combat this disease of Myasthenia Gravis Will There Be Rainbows Or Clouds
By Susan Paytonabout a month ago in Poets
Drive-in Movie Night. Top Story - September 2026.
All small towns have their urban legends. Some have a murderer that roams the area around a specific holiday, while others claim that aliens or ghosts appear after midnight. The list could go on forever. I remember when Scary Movie 3 came out and my friends and I saw it for the first time. The random, mysterious "seven days" phone calls never seemed that scary to us. We always found a way to break down a movie and strip the fear away. We would even look up real urban legends to see if anything similar had ever actually happened. Whenever we found something promising, though, it usually ended up debunked, or we'd find a news report noting that the police had caught a human culprit.
By Mallory Farnumabout a month ago in Horror
Already Here Challenge Winners
Useful tools can change your life before you think to question them. That’s really what made these Already Here entries interesting. Writers looked past the initial “how is this possible?” and paid attention to how quickly something remarkable becomes part of the routine. The strongest pieces didn’t ask us to choose between being impressed and being uneasy. They understood why people welcome these changes, then noticed what else shifts once we get used to them.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout a month ago in Resources
Rachel Reviews: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Top Story - September 2026.
Caro Claire Burke's book Yesteryear is one of those books which for me, I am glad that I can say that I've read but it was a world that I was glad to leave at the end. In fact, to totally unpack what's in it, I might have to do a separate more indepth analysis. This was the second choice for the book club I recently joined so there will be, I think, much for us to discuss.
By Rachel Deemingabout a month ago in BookClub
No Exit. Top Story - September 2026.
Jerod and Micah are jostling you as you saunter up the packed dirt road to the corn maze. Jerod’s wearing the elongated white mask from the movie Scream under his black hooded cloak - he keeps yelling “Whazaaaaa!” at the groups of kids and families heading to the fall festival. Micah has on a creepy scarecrow costume with a fake pitchfork, its tines dipped in vivid red paint. Your mom says you are too old for costumes, but you kind of wish you’d put one on anyhow. When Micah teases you, asking what you are dressed up as, you tell him “A werewolf” and when he says “where’s yer fur and teeth?” You grin and point upwards. “No full moon, dumbass.” Micah guffaws and spits his chewing gum by the row of gourds and pumpkins that line the road.
By Angel Whelanabout a month ago in Fiction
Ice Cream. Top Story - September 2026.
The town of Wickley practically closed down during the autumn/winter seasons. It wasn’t exactly a bustling tourist attraction in peak summer, but it managed to entice enough holidaymakers, weekenders and those from neighbouring towns and villages during the warmer months to sustain a number of businesses, including This and That.
By Matthew Batham5 days ago in Horror
Summer Snow. Honorable Mention in Out of Season Challenge. Top Story - September 2026.
The first snowflake landed in my champagne. For a second, I thought it was ash. It was Christmas Day in Queensland, the sort of day where the heat was suffocating. It sat on your shoulders and pressed against your skin until everything stuck – hair to neck, dress to spine, thighs to chairs. The tiles around the pool were almost too hot to walk on, the air above the barbecue shimmered, and the cicadas screamed from the gums beyond the back fence.
By Emilie Turnerabout a month ago in Fiction
"right". Top Story - September 2026.
The silence that followed me here leaks into every pore of my being. Magnifying like tiny particles that grew wings and decided they want to be more then a spec of dust. How was I to know that today would be eerie after the noise in my dream that tried to make things clear in the most symbolic of ways. Was it clear enough to pass the message from subconscious to conscious?
By Tanya Leijabout a month ago in Poets
Perfectly Ripe. Top Story - September 2026. Content Warning.
Dust is dancing in the cracks of dawn light from the drawn curtains. Fine, cornflour dust. Airy and mischievous, and seeming to spread on every breath of air like spores. Spider dust that spins, and smears, and chokes, and stains. Endless dust, cruel as age. Dust mocking. Dust on every memory. Dust in my fingernail beds and in my eyes, dust in my throat. Dust down to my lungs.
By Lauren Everdellabout a month ago in Fiction
The Shape That Stayed. Top Story - September 2026.
On a walk in the wilderness a long, translucent and scaly encasement is found in the thick brush. As you happen upon its dazzling design you falter and step back, carefully observing for movement that never comes. Eye caps that remain intact but purposeless. The diamond shape that extends into a cylindrical tube that stretches then tapers at the end. Open and detached it is cavernous but sits flat and holds no weight. Fear turns to fascination as you pick up a twig, snapped from some storm-battered branch, and gently lift the skin. Crouching for a closer look, flipping what remains to reveal the glistening jeweled exterior. Perfect in its imitation of what was and what was left behind. With the sleeve of your hoodie or sweater you lift the empty skin jacket and note the lifeless eye caps, gently holding them to the sunlight as it reaches down between the trees to reveal The window to nothing. And the mouth you imagined fierce moments before is now a gap of no consequence. The long hollow tube that once held prey is now a footprint of appetite and survival. Yes—muscle, hunger now struggles to hold itself as you let it lie on the dirt and the grass. You trace gently the opening, carefully, with a measure of respect, as your finger caresses the dry paper-like surface, following its winding length till you come to the tail. As you gaze and ponder, your hands straighten the casing into an imitation of life. But it falls flat. So you ease just a finger, one solitary digit into the opening, filling and giving weight to what remains. It is fuller now. No more alive. You gently retract your finger from the shed skin and it collapses just as easily as it had done before. In that moment you also notice the absence. No hiss. No slither. Do you make the sound just to give the silence something to hold or accept the absence? Imitation is not resurrection.
By Paul Stewartabout a month ago in Poets
