50-Word Stories

TOM MAHER: Hit by a Bus

Tim — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:16 +0000

My patient asked me if he was going to die. No, I told him, you should be fine. But then again, either of us could walk out of here and get hit by a bus. Yes, he said, looking up at me very seriously. That’s what happened to my brother. Tom Maher is a writer … Continue reading →

LINDA KOHLER: Trapeze Artist’s Son

Tim — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:12 +0000

At birth, he swung into the wrong crib, wrong life. Shimmering motes and sweeping flight should have awaited—a vagabond life. Instead, staid routine. Later, cleaners’ brooms. Oh, but he could see them!—those ropes between peaks of stars, begging down to him each night while he made floors sparkle. Linda Kohler is a South Australian writer … Continue reading →

STORY OF THE MONTH: May 2026

Tim — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 22:26:42 +0000

The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.

The finalists for May were:

You Break It by Adele Gallogly
Vigil by Paul D’Arcy
Endurance Sport by JR Walsh
Morning in Rapunzel’s Tower by Bob Thurber
The Corner Seat by the Pond by Stephanie Lye
The First Nip by Jimmy Mack

The winner of the May 2026 Story of the Month is…

The Corner Seat by the Pond

STORY OF THE WEEK: June 7

Tim — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:30:40 +0000

The story of the week for June 1 to 5 is…

The Big Score by Gordon Brown
and
The Notebook by Paul D’Arcy

COLBY WRASSE: Seventeen Wheels

Tim — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 16:00:46 +0000

On the dash he keeps a photo he wishes to forget. The long open road leads the mind to dark alleyways. Places not to be after dark – or before. Deadheading to a room with an empty chair. Pop-top echoes against bare walls. Hotdog in the microwave hisses a familiar song. Colby Wrasse is still … Continue reading →

GORDON BROWN: The Big Score

Tim — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:13 +0000

I steal a lake when no one’s looking. Stuff it into my pocket and walk.

Bait shops. Docks. Reflection of the mountain on the water. I keep it in a chest under my bed, buried under my graduation robes, grandad’s smile, and my favorite dive bar.

Nobody suspects a thing.

Gordon Brown grew up in the deserts of Syria and now lives in the deserts of Nevada. Since arriving in the New World, his work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Weird Horror Magazine, Hunger Mountain Review, and elsewhere. His horror haiku chapbook, Skin Crawls, is available from Cuttlefish Books. He spends his time writing feverishly and looking after his cats, of which he has none.

SARAH SORENSEN: Summer Mornings, Between Cartoons

Tim — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:00:28 +0000

Take the kitchen chair to the counter. Climb up. Open the little cupboard door. Smell the jars of nutmeg, cinnamon. Crab sidle into the sink. Stare out the window. See the pizza place, the neighbors, the cars. Let the sun hit you square in the chest. Sidle back, climb down.

Sarah Sorensen (she/her) MA, MLIS is a queer writer based in the Metro Detroit area. She’s honored to be named a 2025 Best Small Fictions author and runner-up in the 2025 RockPaperPoem Poetry Contest. Sarah’s poetry chapbook, Light Splits Down the Wolf’s Tooth is now available through Bottlecap Press.

ELODIE A ROY: Blue

Tim — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:00:14 +0000

Grandma would absentmindedly leave the cupboard door open and Grandpa gently shut it after her. When he died, Grandma continually had bruises on her forehead, and it is how she’d remember her great love was gone – staring into the bathroom mirror, dazed, tentatively touching her bruised skin – how it hurt.

Elodie A. Roy is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Her short stories appear in The Stinging Fly, 3:AM Magazine, Flash Frog, New World Writing, Blink-Ink, Bending Genres, and elsewhere. In 2024, she was shortlisted for the Finchale Award for Short Fiction (New Writing North) and won a scholarship from the Faber Academy. She is currently working on her debut novel, East, an excerpt of which was shortlisted as part of the 2026 Huddersfield Literature Festival’s 20/20 Competition.

SCOTT BURAU: 6AM, Somewhere

Tim — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:00:10 +0000

Deb moves between them with a coffee pot and no need for thanks. The old man takes her side of the booth now, watching the door the way she used to. When the bell rings, everyone looks up. Then looks back down. The red stools hold whoever comes. Scott Burau is a writer living between … Continue reading →

JOHANNES SPRINGENSEISS: Muse

Tim — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:00:27 +0000

You lie awake, staring at the ceiling. The idea brews into a low-grade fever, a quiet heat pulsing long after bedtime. The malt liquor has lost its teeth, leaving only a dull headache. Your hands twitch with the clamorous weight of words unwritten. The night remains heavy and unfinished. Johannes Springenseiss is a world citizen … Continue reading →