53-Word Story Contest
Each month we offer a prompt to subscribers of Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine to write a 53-word story—no more, no less—and send it to us by the fifteenth day of the month. Our editors select one winning story, and the author receives a book from Press 53 as well as publication in Prime Number Magazine. Want to play along? Subscribe to Prime Number Magazine for free and we’ll send you the prompt on the first day of each month.
Scroll down to read our winning stories for May, June, July, August
We begin with the prompt, followed by our winning story
May 2025
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
Termination
by David Phipps
To: Daniel Miller
From: Charles Harrington
Subject: Termination Slip
Your employment with Harrington Engineering is hereby terminated without cause. Enclosed is payment for earned salary, accrued vacation, sick leave and severance compensation as required by your employment contract.
Dan’s copy only:
Reemployment is available after your honeymoon.
Take good care of my daughter.
~ ~ ~
53-Word Bio
David Phipps is a retired lawyer and lifelong reader of mysteries and science fiction. He writes short stories as a hobby and enjoys creating crazy situations for the characters to blunder through. He is a woodworker and an eager visitor to craft shows. He and most of his children live in Southern California.
June 2025
Prompt for June: How about a riddle this month? I grow from my roots, yet am not a tree. I can be a lock but not the kind you open with a key. Do you know it? Take your time, this isn’t a race. That being said, there is a winner and it’s usually really close.
Write a 53-word story about hair
Unsafe at Any Speed (Dating)
by Jerry Levy
Actuary. And you?
CPA.
Yeah, I took accounting—found it boring.
So, Actuary, what’re the odds your socks match?
Lemme guess, you prefer checkers to chess.
Says the guy with a calculator in his pocket and not much else.
I like that perfume. My mother used to wear it.
And I smell Rogaine.
~ ~ ~
53-Word Bio
Jerry Levy dropped accounting and went on to earn a living as a pension actuary. His logophilia was a creative outlet—in place of psychotherapy if you ask his wife, Karen. Now he roams around Chicago Botanic Garden with friends and tutors first and second graders with reading, not math, because it’s prime.
July 2025
Prompt for July: With July, we see the year begin to recede; heading back from whence it came. We contemplate the never-ending cycle: the tipping of one glass bulb’s contents into another only until it tips back again. We build and marvel at what we’ve done, then grind it all down or see it wash away.
Write a 53-word story about sand
We Might Be Onto Something Here
by Lisa H. Owens
Today marks forty years of wandering aimlessly through this godforsaken desert and Moses is pretty fed up with the wind and sand and all that it entails. Millions of coarse granules inhabit his beard, weighing him down like an anchor, and his eyes are perpetually dry and bloodshot—although his skin is fabulous.
~ ~ ~
53-Word Bio
Lisa H. Owens, a former humorist columnist, resides in Weatherford, Texas, with two rescue dogs and a possum named Harry, who’s lived beneath the backyard shed since he was a leggy adolescent. Her work’s been featured in dozens of anthologies and magazines. Lisa favors dark comedy and isn't afraid of spiders and snakes. Link to her work.
August 2025
Prompt for August: Last month we witnessed one of the most unique annual events in all of sports: The Tour De France. Globally, only the World Cup draws more viewers. The World Cup is every four years. Each of those years contain four seasons which give us plenty of renewal, expiration, and renewal. Over and over.
Write a 53-word story about a cycle