Winners of our FREE monthly 53-Word Story Contest

Each month we offer a prompt to subscribers of Prime Number Magazine to write a 53-word story—no more, no less—and send it to us by the twenty-first day of the month. Our judges select one winning story, and the author receives a book from Press 53 as well as publication here, in Prime Number Magazine. Want to play along? Subscribe to Prime Number Magazine and we’ll send you the prompt on the first day of each month.

Read our winners for January, February, and March 2020 by scrolling down

Breakaway by Scott B. Shepherd

JoJo peers out warily. Maybe she's napping; maybe she's waiting for him. He can't hide in the couch forever.

One chance. Deep breath. He leaps. Tiny claws catch in the carpet. He's doomed.

"Hamster!" Chloe shrieks as she pounces. "Just in time for tea!"

Here comes a doll dress. There goes JoJo's dignity. 

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Scott B. Shepherd didn’t convert to serious reading until later in life but has been writing since childhood. He now sees the symbiotic relationship between reading and writing and loves to do both. He has written in many forms including print articles, song lyrics, short stories, and picture books. He blogs at scottbshepherd.wordpress.com

Endurance by Elizabeth Barton

Arm outstretched, she searched for the perfect spot on the rear bumper. She’d made the sticker herself—bold digits 1079 against blue sky and cottony clouds. She’d get questions. Everyone understood what 26.2 meant, but how many people knew the page total for Infinite Jest? She’d inform them. It had been her marathon.

~ ~ ~

Elizabeth Barton has been writing continually since she learned the alphabet. She keeps her writing muscles lithe and toned through her day job as a medical writer and by scratching out fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in the off-hours. Her work has appeared in Skirt! and Gemini Magazine, among other journals and anthologies.

Virginia Cabin by Eric Waddon

The cabin stood amongst a clearing of oak trees that otherwise encompassed the ground. Gray snow blanketed and suffocated the grass; the naked oaks stripped of their fertile leaves. Inside, he felt cold and hollow. He tapped brown moss to a trunk and to give it life he mixed Yellow with Phthalo Blue.

~ ~ ~

Eric Waddon is a broadcast media professional from Fairfax Station, Virginia. He found the 53-Word Story Contest while searching for something creative to do during the COVID-19 stay at home orders. His favorite novel of all time is Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and he plans to write more short stories in the future.