Saturday Newsletter: November 25, 2023

A note from Diane Landolf

Dear readers,

I hope those of you in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now let’s all get ready for another kind of celebration! It’s our annual student reading, and everyone’s invited!

On Saturday, December 2, at 11:00 am Pacific/2:00 pm Eastern, Stone Soup is hosting a virtual reading by students in our Stone Soup Writing Workshops. Join our student authors—along with their friends, family, teachers, and the workshop instructors—as they read their favorite pieces aloud. The online event is free, but a reservation is required. To reserve your spot and find out more about the reading, click here.

If you participated in one of our workshops in 2023, we’d love to have you participate in the reading. Please submit the piece you'd like to read via Submittable under the category "Annual Writing Workshop Reading" by November 30. The maximum reading time per author is five minutes. We can’t wait to hear your work!

Registration for our 2024 workshops will open soon, so check back for information about course offerings and how to sign up.

With an open heart and a very full stomach,

Register for our Annual Reading

Submit your work to our Annual Reading

From Stone Soup
November/December 2023

Within the Stars

by Mia Atkinson, 11

Olive didn’t know how long she’d sat on her bed staring at the stars. They were so bright that night, shining like thousands of little suns in the sky. It brightened up the window next to her bed, its paper-white curtain fully open.

Olive sighed, a sound like a balloon deflating. She felt like that. Ten years ago, Olive had sat on this very bed, holding her breath and silently praying to the stars as her husband took his last breaths from a fever. They were too poor to pay for a doctor to come to their house, and going there would just take too long.

That was when she lost her husband.

That was when she became no one.

That was when she became just an old woman with frail hands.

Just.

Olive wiped away a tear, staring at the full sky. The wind through the open window tickled her cheek as she stared out at the stars. She imagined that they were reaching out to her, glowing brightly. Her husband was up there too, waving at her and telling her that she would be all right, even though they both knew she wouldn’t. Not without him...

Click here to find out what happens next.