high school graduation picture, 195

The Face in question

My dad was sent to Xichang, an outpost, to “reform” and “serve the people” when I was born. Dad saw me, his firstborn, for the first time when I was seven-month-old. The Little Red Book in my hand served as the standard photo pop and rattle for a baby. I looked a little rattled—the photographer was shining too much light on me with a rice-bowl-sized Mao pin.

Luimbe Domingos, pictured here with Dani Liebman.

Pacman for Atari (1981) image source: http://www.mobygames.com

Nancy Caronia as Catharine and Kim Grethen as the nun in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer.

Tell Us a Story publishes stories that are true and happened to the author. We publish new writers and seasoned writers, amateurs and professionals, sad stories and happy stories, dead cat stories and best friend stories.

Everyone has a good story: it’s the story you tell when you first meet people or maybe only after you’ve known them a long time. It’s the story you tell when the evening gets quiet, or when everyone’s been drinking, or when there’s a fire and comfortable chairs around. It’s the kind of story that passes the time. Your close friends probably know this story by heart. But that’s because it’s a good story.

We publish a new issue quarterly.

Want to tell us a story? Great!

All submissions must be less than 2000 words and must be based on something that actually happened to you (not to your friend or your cousin or your high school math teacher). We are also interested in very short stories (flash [non]fiction), experimental stories, poems, or plays as long as they are true. When possible, we’d like you to send us a scanned photograph or document that correlates with your story, because those kinds of details are nice.

All authors who publish with Tell Us A Story retain the rights to their work and may publish it elsewhere — we just ask that you credit our site if and when you republish. We also accept reprints, if the piece first appeared in print (we do not accept reprints from other online sites). If your piece is a reprint, please acknowledge this when you submit. We also accept simultaneous submissions.

All stories are read by both Amanda and Allyson. We generally do not offer feedback on submissions but we will occasionally request revisions from authors on pieces that show promise but need work. Those authors will work with Coral, our revisions editor. If  we do not respond to your submission in 6 weeks, please do not hesitate to check in on the status of your submission.

Tell Us A Story reserves the right to edit manuscripts for grammar or clarity. If a manuscript requires substantial changes, we will notify the author of such changes for review before publication.

All published stories will remain archived on this site in perpetuity or until the Earth collapses in on itself. Submission to Tell Us A Story constitutes acceptance of these conditions.

Please send submissions as an editable attachment (no PDFs please!!!), along with images, and a 100 word (or less) biographical statement to tellusastoryblog@gmail.com.  Put “TUAS Submission” in the subject line. Please submit only one submission at a time (unless you are sending poetry).