National Short Story Day
Get lost in worlds within words — create characters, weave plots, and inspire imaginations. Reading and writing is a passport to adventure!
Encourage readers and aspiring writers to discover or create short fiction, driving engagement with literary platforms, writing tools, and e-book retailers.
- Share your unpublished short story draft and get feedback from our community
- 5 short stories you can read in under 30 minutes — perfect for your lunch break
- Start your writing journey: free tools and templates for first-time short story authors
- Celebrate with us: spotlight reader-submitted stories and micro-fiction on social
National Short Story Day was founded as early as 2013 by a group of independent writers and publishers who wanted to encourage more people to get involved with the pratice of writing stories to share with the world!
Write a Short Story
As mentioned before, one way to celebrate National Short Story Day is to finally get that idea you’ve been toying around with in your mind on paper. Not everyone is destined to be a world-renowned writer, but you owe it to yourself to try, so no matter whether your idea is for a scare-filled horror story, a complex mystery, a funny little anecdote, or anything els If you find that you enjoy writing, that first little short story may continue to evolve until it’s a collection of short stories. Or maybe you will get so into the art of storytelling that you will be inspired to continue to develop what was originally supposed to be a short story until it ends up being a complete novel? And then…who knows? It may just get published. But even if it doesn’t, you will have found a new hobby, something that allows you to express yourself, like other people paint and yet others photograph things that fascinate them.
Read Some Short Stories
If writing is something you don’t feel any desire to try, however, National Short Story Day can still be an interesting and enjoyable experience that broadens your horizons. And because reading a short story does not take that much time, you can celebrate this day without having to take the day off work! “Harvey’s Dream”, a rather sad exploration of what Alzheimer’s disease does to a person, is considered by some to be one of Stephen King’s best short stories. “Romantic Weekend” by Mary Gaitskill is dangerously dark and sensual, and will let you know just how much you’ve been missing out on reading “Fifty Shades of Grey”. And if literature that evokes feelings of dread and tension, then Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is guaranteed to raise all of the hairs on the back of your neck until the very last page.
Learn About Favorite Short Story Authors
This day is for everyone who appreciates the art that is good literature. There are a lot of great short story authors, so spend some time researching them and reading their different works. This includes the likes of Deborah Eisenberg, James Baldwin, John Cheever, Mavis Gallant, Isaac Babel, Katherine Mansfield, Anton Chekhov, and many more.
Share About National Short Story Day
The great thing about short stories is that it does not take a lot of time for you to read them and determine whether or not an author’s style is right for you. Make sure you take the time to share the works you enjoy online. Not only because others may enjoy them, but it helps the author to raise their profile and reach more people too.