Attention Educators! If you are using the 53-Word Story Contest in your classroom, please send an email to our publisher at Kevin@Press53.com for a free copy of What Dwells between the Lines. We created this anthology especially for you!
Take a look at our first-ever
53-Word Story Contest Anthology!
Our FREE Monthly 53-Word Story Contest
It's free, it's fun; the winner gets published in Prime Number Magazine and receives a free book from Press 53. Be sure to subscribe to our email updates for free. You’ll receive an email on the first day of each month with our winning story and the prompt for our next contest.
Open to writers around the world who write in English
Congratulations to Our Winner for April 2025
Last month we received 410 53-word stories from writers around the world!
Photo by Jean Paul Wettstein, licensed through Pexels
Our Prompt for April was: Meaning a blending of idioms, we get the word “malaphor” by combining “malapropism” and “metaphor.” To win this month, authors will want to make sure their stories stick out like a sore throat. We editors can’t wait to read through all the submissions, but we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.
Write a 53-word story about a slip
“Last Body” by Paula Benski
Jim drags the last body to the edge of the dock. After this, he’s done. As he gives it a shove, his foot slides out from under him, sending them both crashing into the water together.
Annoyance turns to panic as his foot gets caught in the chain attached to the cinder block.
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53-Word Bio
Paula Benski lives in central Florida and writes every chance she gets, usually at the expense of a good night’s sleep. When she is not writing, she can be found reading, playing her flutes, or grinding her own flour for baking. She claims she is very close to giving up on sleep entirely.
Editors’ Note
As our winner for April, Paula will receive a free copy of What Dwells between the Lines: Fifty-Three 53-Word Story Contest Winners, Plus Tips on Writing Remarkably Brief Fiction. Her story will appear on this page for the month of May and will be published in Issue 271 of Prime Number Magazine on May 1, 2025. Congratulations, Paula!
Read More of Our Winning Stories
But first, read your prompt for this month
Enter the 53-Word Story Contest for May 2025
Deadline is the 15th day of the month
Image by Pixabay licensed through Pexels
Our Prompt for May: Here in the USA, May means springtime, and springtime brings growth, life, renewed hope, trees filling with leaves, plants emerging from soil, and warmer days; opening the windows in the evening, enjoying a cool breeze after a day of planting and watering, hoping to attract more bees, birds, and butterflies. Bring it on!
Write a 53-word story about a promise
The winner for May will receive a copy of What Dwells between the Lines: Fifty-Three 53-Word Story Contest Winners, Plus Tips on Writing Remarkably Brief Fiction, and their story will appear on this page for the month of June and will be published in Issue 277 of Prime Number Magazine on September 1, 2025.
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Please read our guidelines carefully
DEADLINE is the 15th day of the month
NO ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE!
Paste your story in the body of your email to 53wordstory@gmail.com
HINT: Each month, when we offer a new prompt, we introduce it with a short 53-word description that suggests several ways you might consider the prompt. Even the photo can offer a different way to look at it. What are we looking for? A story that surprises us in its approach to the prompt, something unusual and creative. The first idea that pops into your head probably popped into the heads of others too, so you might want to take another look at how your story can be different. Challenge yourself to find an unusual way to write a 53-word story about the prompt, and don’t think you have to use the prompt in your story, literally; implying the word works too. Surprise us! That’s what we are looking for.
Here’s how to enter (please read our guidelines carefully before sending us your story):
–Your story must be 53 words—no more, no less—titles are not included in the word count. Stories with fewer than or more than 53 words will be disqualified. Send only stories; poetry with line breaks will not be considered.
–There is no age limit. This is a FREE contest, so there is no age restriction.
–Be careful of word count. Hyphenated words count as one word.
–Titles are not included in the word count. If your story is not titled, we will create a title for publication.
–One submission per person. 'Nough said.
–NO ATTACHMENTS! Paste your story into the body of your email. Stories sent as attachments, or images embedded in the email, will not be considered.
–By entering this contest the author grants Press 53 First Serial Rights to publish the story in Prime Number Magazine and to archive it permanently on our website. All other rights remain with the author.
–Email your story directly to 53wordstory@gmail.com by the 15th day of the month, midnight Eastern Time. NO ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE!
Our judges for the 53-Word Story Contest are the editors of Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine. Our winner for this month’s contest will receive a free book from Press 53, and the winning story will appear here on the 53-Word Story Contest page for the entirety of the month following the contest, and will also be published, along with the author’s *photo and 53-word bio, in the next issue of Prime Number Magazine.
(*we will request your photo and 53-word bio if your story is our winner, so be prepared!)
Available now!
Fifty-Three 53-Word Story Contest Winners, Plus Tips on Writing Remarkably Brief Fiction
edited by Kevin Morgan Watson, Claire V. Foxx, Christopher Forrest, and Ella Watson
ISBN 978-1-950413-81-2
8 x 5.25 inch softcover, 82 pages