Short Story Month:

The May Holiday Every Writer & Reader Didn’t Know They Needed to Celebrate

The idea of Short Story Month started in April 2007, when a man named Dan Wickett, the founder, and editor of the Emerging Writers Network (EWN), published a post titled “Short Story Month?” The idea of Short Story Month was supposed to stay on EWN, but the book community had written blogs and websites about this new bookworm holiday. Readers and writers loved the idea altogether, and with so much positive feedback, Wickett and the EWN ended up posting 178 short stories in 2008. This continued in 2009, when three short stories were reviewed and published every day! A year later in 2010, it was declared that May would be the month of short stories since April had been the month of poetry since 1996.

What has Short Story Month evolved into?

Short Story Month is where you are invited to read as many short stories as possible within that month. You can also write your own. Some people go so far as to write their own short stories every single day in the month of May. There are also contests that you can find online where you are able to win prize money for reaching goals like writing a short story with only 2500 words or writing in a specific genre. Although there are a number of contests and competitions that are held over the month of May, it is a way to challenge writers and readers to work their brains in quick-thinking ways. Writing off of prompts is a great way for writers to push out a new short story every day, and coffee is a good way to stay awake when reading a new short story every day.

A short story can be pretty difficult to write; it’s hard to know if the story is too short or where to stop it. Just keep in mind: a short story can be two to 98 pages long—anything in between that is fine. 

Overall, Short Story Month should be taken advantage of. For people who don’t want to read, try out some short stories. For writers, take up a challenge and see how many short stories you can push out for the month. For readers, challenge your brains to read a short story every day, hopefully keeping your eyes and sanity intact.