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!

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 March 2026

Last month we received 453 53-word stories from writers around the world!

“You Are Free to Go” by Michael A. Boyles

A castaway in his own hometown. Publix stands where Joel remembered Sizzler and Blockbuster. Cigarettes no longer permeate the courthouse. He didn’t understand downloads, cell phones, or judicial injunctions. In the same courtroom where it all began, his twenty-three-year battle ended when the judge read “the perpetrator’s DNA does not match your own.”

~ ~ ~

53-Word Bio
At age 60, Michael Alexander Boyles is a dentist in Winston-Salem. Due to poor penmanship, he never enjoyed English until Mrs. Privette’s tenth grade class. Langston Hughes wrote his “Theme for English B,” the light brigade charged, Robert Frost pondered over a fork in the road, and that has made all the difference.

Editors’ Note
As our winner for March, Michael 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. His story will appear on this page for the month of April and will be published in Issue 283 of Prime Number Magazine on May 1, 2026. Congratulations, Michael!

Read More of Our Winning Stories

But first, read your prompt for this month

Enter the 53-Word Story Contest for April 2026

**Deadline is the 15th day of the month**

Our Prompt for April: There is no to-and-fro month quite like April. Winter will lick at our heels while summer teases. Young couples will box-step through school dances. The bats of spring training arc in repetition. The dormant creatures all return to work. The year progresses and the pendulum is turned; gaining speed down its short hill.

Write a 53-word story about a swing

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!)