You are walking your dog on a windy day when an unusual tree branch blown to the sidewalk catches your eye. On closer inspection, it’s not a tree branch at all. It’s…a dinosaur bone?
Write an “epistolary novel,” a story told entirely through a letter written to one of the characters.
Write about an event that doesn’t go as planned. Examples of events that might go awry include: New Year’s Eve, the first day of school, or the year 2020.
The bronze statues by Georgia Gerber that line Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita see a lot of action on any given day. Pick one of them and tell us who they are and how they got there. What does the Barefoot Businessman think about what he’s reading in The Wichita Eagle? What do the mother and little boy see in a window of the Kress building? Is the busker having any luck today?
Write a story that takes place the same year you started kindergarten. What political events and cultural trends happened that year? How was technology different? How will these factors shape the narrative and setting for your characters?
A “macguffin” is defined as an object or device in a work of fiction that furthers the plot. Using the “macguffin” of a sealed shut, featureless cardboard box, tell a story about the box, who is responsible for it and what might be inside it.
Imagine a world where humans hibernated during the winter. Write a mystery story that takes place in this hypothetical universe.
Write a story that takes place in a singular setting; that setting is the last building you went to that wasn’t work, school or home.For horror writers, think of the last time something scared you but it turned out to be completely harmless. Write a story where that harmless thing is the story’s antagonist.Douglas and Oliver, Murdock and Washington – Select a Wichita intersection and develop a story around two characters that take their names from the streets in that intersection.In the tradition of Franz Kafka, write a story where the protagonist goes to sleep a human only to wake up as an animal of your choosing.On January 1, 2021, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald entered the public domain, which means that the novel is no longer protected under copyright. Incorporate elements from The Great Gatsby into your story in the same way other public domain characters (like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula) have appeared in contemporary fiction.
The author should submit an original story/poem in English. For stories in English, the maximum length is 8,000 characters (including spaces). The work must be fictional, or deal with historical or biographical topics in a literary manner. Journalistic works, nonfiction articles or essays, etc., will not be accepted. Stories can be of any genre, e.g.: drama, romance, science fiction, etc. Pornographic or erotic texts are not permitted.
Authors shall submit their work using a Short Edition account they will need to create. The author should clearly indicate how they would like to be credited for their work. This name will appear next to the title of the story.
The author declares that he/she is the sole author of any text he/she submits, and that this same text is an original creation. The author declares that he/she controls the copyright of the submitted text, meaning that he/she has never transferred these rights to a third person/entity.
The author grants a non-exclusive right to the project organizer to reproduce, correct and publish his/her stories via Short Story Dispensers belonging to the Wichita Public Library. The copyright of the work shall remain with the author. The author agrees and acknowledges that in this specific case, publication and distribution of their work shall not result in the payment of royalties from
Short Edition.
The coordinators of the Wichita Public Library project have sole discretion in selecting works for distribution via the Short Story Dispenser. They may also reject or remove works from the dispenser without giving any prior notice or justification to the author. The author can also ask for his/her work to be removed by notifying the project coordinators in writing.
If you have any requests, please email shortstories@wichitalibrary.org.