Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Queen Jane
It’s just you and me, Queen Jane Trapped like flies in a rosewood morning. Lemon light slides down the wall; Almost made it to that corner now
Jean McKinneyPublished 3 days ago in PoetsPickled Herring with My Dad
When I was three, my dad sat on the edge of my bed many nights after placing a plate of our favorite snack by my ballerina music box, and then delved into Treasure Island or Nancy Drew.
Lacy Loar-GruenlerPublished 4 days ago in PoetsThe Business of Nature
Dew drops reflected the light of the sun. The inhabitants of Whispering Woods woke up to the golden droplets of water on the leaves of the flora. The oaks particularly enjoyed the light and the maples did, too. Happiness enveloped all who lived there, even the rocks that cried out in the night delighted in the morning.
Skyler SaundersPublished 5 days ago in FictionBridge Over Troubled Water
At 29, you'd think I would have felt an overabundance of emotion by now. But, I haven’t. Each day, I maneuvered mechanically neither awake nor sleep. My life has been one dimensional and gray. It's been lukewarm. And it's essence has completely passed me by. My name is Gabriel. And this is my story.
Jennifer DavidPublished 5 days ago in FictionConfronting What Scares Me
In "Writing is NOT a Safe Space," Essay 5 of her Writing & Self-empowerment Series, Vocal author Mackenzie Davis challenges creators to write a declaration of their values and principles as a writer.
Catherine DorianPublished 5 days ago in WritersOld Typewriter
This critique and acrostic poem will show readers why I chose this image for most of my writing. Old-fashioned typing mode for the sound it made clickity-clack or something like that.
Mark GrahamPublished 8 days ago in CritiqueT w o - F a c e d
"For now on, "Suki Kawaza" is you." She caresses her check with both hands. "I don't want you to die." "I'm going to be a beautiful ghost, Suki."
Damsel - A Netflix Movie Review
This is not a story about a damsel in distress. Damsel in a 2024 fantasy-action Netflix film. Elodie agrees to marry a handsome prince. At the wedding’s conclusion, the royal family recruits her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. The young damsel fights for survival in the dark cave, home to a blood-thirsty dragon.
Marielle SabbagPublished 8 days ago in GeeksINTO THE WILD.
I am not a well-behaved woman You will find me dancing along the edges of discomfort
Catherine NyomendaPublished 10 days ago in PoetsDestination of a Writer.
I need something happy to happen–like right now. I can’t find it in the sun or the moon or the stars like I usually do. I need something terrible to happen. I need to break out of this mould I am trapped in. I need to feel something, anything, just not nothing. What happened to the clouds? Or my thoughts when I looked at the clouds? I used to see it differently–this world. So what happened? Where did it go wrong? Is it wrong, or am I wrong? They look like…white wisps of…nothing.
Follow Your Feet
Mine have guided me, back and forth, here and there, not quite everywhere. To a hundred new places, to discover favourite spaces,
Negomi Oak RhettsPublished 2 years ago in PoetsMonday
“Next!” She did not mean to shout, but she knew what the morning would be like. The people waiting in line would be buying stamps, picking up packages, check post office boxes, etc…and then buying whatever groceries they could find in the drugstore before heading to the café or the metro. The day they decided to put her job in the middle of the brightness of a drugstore was the day she should have quit. But she was still here, after the move, wearing the uniform that indicated some level of responsibility and experience.
Kendall DefoePublished 4 days ago in FictionSigurd's Dream
The dead greeted me in the early morning with their delicate songs of Valhalla, as the wind awoke me from my blinding dreams of paradise.
Truth in the Lies
Kathleen Brannagh stared at the bundle of documents as if they might catch fire where they sat. She chewed the edge of her nail, nose wrinkling at the musty scent found in old houses and the pungent odor of fear combined with grief and disbelief. Overwhelmed, she stomped down the stairs. The past should have stayed where she found it -- in the back of a cluttered closet with moth-eaten baby clothes and stained photographs.
Lisa VanGalenPublished 11 days ago in CriminalCreeps
Climbing from her apartment window onto the rusty fire escape, she carefully avoided the sharp bits she had snagged herself on before. Up a few more ladders and landings, she finally ascended to the rooftop. Laying on her back, she peered up at the stars that began appearing in the night sky. She had done this since she was a girl. Long ago, it became too dangerous to travel on the ground, significantly as night fell. However, from this particular vantage point, the world looked the same as before the reckoning, except for the decrease of smog. She felt like she could reach up and touch the twinkling lights above her and swirl them around her fingers like diamond rings.
S.N. EvansPublished 10 days ago in HorrorLove Unraveled Challenge Winners
Sometimes the simplest challenges are the deepest and most revealing. For this challenge we asked you to “unravel the mysteries, joys, and challenges of love through the power of personal storytelling” — we all love, we all feel we know what it means to love. Yet this challenge offered a reminder of the infinite shapes of human connection, and what power love has over us, even in the face of struggle and pain.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 5 days ago in ResourcesTrauma, Grief, and Loss
Can we fill in the rest of the frames? Yes. For sure we can add grief and loss. Chronic bereavement is another. Overdose. Suicide. Addiction. More specific abuse; rape, domestic violence, incest, physical and emotional neglect. Or fill in the blanks with your trauma.
Denise E LindquistPublished 7 days ago in PsycheHas My Writing Plateaued?
Perspiration is essential for the mammal. Persistence is essential for the creator. I happen to be both… so I’m constantly sweating and trying over here.
Stephen Kramer AvitabilePublished 6 days ago in WritersThe Ghost of Paganini
My father was propped up in his bed, the ivory coverlet pulled up to his chest. Even after the weeks of chemo had ended, I was always shocked by his appearance, his bald head and missing eyebrows making him almost unrecognizable. He looked at the ragged man that I led into the room through puffy eyes, the sides of his mouth turned downwards in disappointment at the man’s appearance.
Weirdo
It’s a challenge, this “be a better version of myself” thing, it really puts my head in a spin, I mean I’m a weirdo, I’m definitely no hero, but I just wanna be free and express myself in poetry,
Jess BoyesPublished 5 days ago in Poets