Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
A cart, a donkey and a little too much wine. Top Story - May 2024.
I’ll start by telling you a story. It is a true tale from a different time in a land about as far from where I live now, a modern city near the sea in the southern hemisphere, as you could imagine.
By Michèle Nardelli2 years ago in Families
No Plus One . Top Story - May 2024.
It's nearly one AM and I just got back from my third wedding of the four in this last month alone, and I have always been alone. I hide behind my camera to pretend to be useful, hide behind a safety net of skill set. So I do not have to confront the loneliness that is sleeping alone when everyone else seems to have a partner to crawl into bed with. I love the time spent with those who decided I was worth the 30-plus dollars per plate they decided to spend on me, and I do not need to have a partner on these occasions, but it would be nice to have someone notice, me. See when I am in the corner because they know I need time to recharge and to kiss me on the head until the time has come to leave. Maybe that's the problem about being a professional storyteller, I dream of something that isn't meant for me.
By Rilee Arey2 years ago in Confessions
Remember. Top Story - May 2024.
The air hangs hot and humid, reaching nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweat trickles beneath your clothing as you move along the pathways. Whispers of long silenced echoes lift in the occasional breeze, surrounding you with an eerie sense of something other worldly, foreboding and long lost. Dust particles stir to settle in your lungs with each breath and step you take beneath the intertwined tree limbs hanging just overhead; they provide relief - momentary shelter from the sun’s rays. Each movement, each stir of dust leads you one step closer to whatever beckons. Not knowing exactly what you will find ahead, you still obey the summons. It's that for which you traveled one hundred miles inland.
By Cindy Calder2 years ago in Wander
When We Were Very Young. Top Story - May 2024.
In another box set that my parents got me when I was younger contained four books by A.A. Milne. 'When We Were Very Young' is a collection of poems that Milne wrote for his son Christopher Robin. This is a book that is full of references to Mr. Edward Bear, but a lot of the poems give some various descriptions of life of a very young child and where, when, how and why they do what they do. The illustrations are quite cute for you can see what Christopher Robin is and may be thinking. Also, Pooh Bear does make his self-known at various points. I have read these verses many, many times over the years and each time make me feel good about myself.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin. Top Story - May 2024.
Published on the 18th of May, 1953, ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’ became the book that James Baldwin is probably most famous for. Including the very real impacts of violence upon the African American community during a time of turbulence for Civil Rights, James Baldwin became an absolute superstar not just of his race, but of the oppressed in every situation, in every country, all over the world. From Palestine to the Civil Rights Movement, from the LGBTQA+ to Muslim Migrants from war-torn countries, James Baldwin is the voice of the oppressed not just through the way he presents the division, but the way he presents a reality that the oppressors could not possibly be aware of. A reality in which every day is a fight to survive. What makes this even more real is that this is a semi-autobiographical novel. In my personal opinion, James Baldwin was the most articulate man in history.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
The Flamingo Lounge. Top Story - May 2024.
Lola heard the footsteps from the hallway as she sat in her dressing room. She stared straight ahead at her reflection. Her lips had grown thin and her wrinkles had grown deep. The Flamingo Lounge had seen better days and so had she.
By D.K. Shepard2 years ago in Fiction
The Intersection of Past and Upcoming. Top Story - May 2024.
This story was originally published on Medium. ************** A bellow, a shriek, a roar… one by one… emanated in the distance, but closed in. Not one single hair on one single neck in the valley wasn’t standing at attention.
By Stephen Kramer Avitabile2 years ago in Fiction
Delicious Nightmares. Top Story - May 2024.
There is nothing novel in the observation that a good cinema experience is akin to a waking dream. We sit in darkness and become enveloped in a world of images that we piece together to form a narrative. Sometimes the images overpower us and we struggle with the paralysis of a nightmare. And then the lights come back up and we take a breath to remember it was not real, we were not in that car crash, we were not in a fight, we were not a lover being romanced. And we need a moment between the last credit and the real world to gather our thoughts to find meaning in what we have seen.
By Rachel Robbins2 years ago in Writers
It Happened. Top Story - May 2024.
Introduction Three years ago I joined Vocal to win a big prize. That never happened, but this did. What Did? As you know I have a fascination with numbers and tend to track what happens to my account via Vocal's flawed statistics. As I hit certain numbers of stories, I tend to share them with others on Vocal.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 2 years ago in Writers











