Short story dispensers around the world just gained three new award-winning stories—and one of the authors is a BYU student.
In November 2020, BYU began offering students waiting between classes an alternative to scrolling through their phones: reading short stories. Short Édition, a nonprofit organization that creates and distributes short story dispensers, gathers short pieces written by writers around the world and prints them in over 300 dispensers worldwide, including four on BYU campus. Every year, Short Édition runs a writing contest, in which students from around the world submit short stories they’ve written, and Short Édition selects three of these to publish—this year, that includes a piece written by Callie Storm (Human Development ’27), an undergraduate at BYU.
Storm’s submission, titled “My Lady Elana,” follows the memories of an elderly man who waits by a lake every year to honor his late wife, whom he met there as a teenager. Though a mere 991 words, Storm’s piece explores love and loss over time while staying true to the competition’s 2024 theme, “Once in a Blue Moon.” Storm says, “I had been reading the short stories from the short story machines at BYU. . . and was so excited for this opportunity to share what I could and develop my talent more. I am so grateful for the judges for choosing my story; it was so much fun to write, and seeing that I won just gave me such a boost of confidence.”
Read Storm’s story from the 2024 Long Story Short Competition here.