Top Stories

New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.

Midnight Thoughts
I'm not sure who I am these days except a bundle of questions and dreams. I'm closer to thirty than twenty, which in many eyes is still young, and yet I feel like I've lived lifetime after lifetime, and still, not lived quite enough. I'm tired. The kind of tired that sits so heavy in your bones it keeps you from falling asleep. Does everyone feel this way? Sticky with sweetness? Sick with hope? Muddied, unfinished, closer than ever before to death?
By Eden Row3 days ago in Psyche
Poem of a Grieving Mother
I feel a bit like a fraud Reading those poems about grief Because despite how many people I’ve lost I still can’t quite believe
By Emma Mark3 days ago in Poets
A System That Isn’t Working Challenge Winners
Systems promise order. They organize behavior, distribute opportunity, and suggest that if everyone follows the rules, things will work. The entries in A System That Isn’t Working look closely at what happens when that promise begins to slip.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout 15 hours ago in Resources
'Scream 7' Review: A Franchise Running on Empty
⭐ Rating: 2 out of 5 stars Scream 7 Directed by Kevin Williamson Written by Kevin Williamson Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May
By Sean Patrick7 days ago in Horror
"Safe Space?"
Link to the Challenge: I found it on a sign in a rough part of the city (actually not too rough), with a broken QR code
By Kendall Defoe 3 days ago in Poets
Hottest in the Office
Dear Rafi, You’re very distracting to work around. For the first second I saw you the other day, I thought you were some type of executive. It took a moment to realize no, you were just the new guy, dressed up for the job he wants. Be still, my heart.
By Gabriel Shamesa day ago in Pride
Precious Train Moments with Mama
“There’s the train!” he yells excitedly, squinting off into the distance. The train rumbles into the station, and the doors slowly part. We hop aboard, take a seat, and our Sunday excursion has begun.
By Sandy Gillmana day ago in Families
Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 03/11/2026
Welcome to our weekly Leaderboard update! We're delighted to highlight Vocal's most popular stories. Join us as we recognize this week's standout contributors and their remarkable achievements.
By Vocal Teamabout 19 hours ago in Resources
Why Didn't Anyone Tell Us
Men, move along. This is not for you. This is for the women. I was forty-five when I began menopause. It is pretty young for that to be going on in a woman’s life, but I had undiagnosed PCOS, my entire life. Thank you to all the gynecologists I had seen my entire life. That in itself should encourage women to keep seeking second opinions, especially when you are not getting correct answers or any at all.
By Alexandra Granta day ago in Humans
Eight
“Eight,” I announce when Heidi asks, “What’s today’s number?” Everyone else is confused. But I know she means the digit
By Tina D. Lopeza day ago in Poets
Dwarves!
Two and a half centuries ago, The muck of the Iwandapowa swamp parted. A great eye socket emerged, and blinked the cake of the terrain away.
By Noah Husband2 days ago in Fiction
there is a time to write plainly
I am not one to speak plainly - sometimes, I repeat and ramble, or talk in circles before reaching the point - and much like the way I speak,
By Alexandria Stanwyck6 days ago in Poets
El-Roi
I think I do owe you an apology I didn't see because I didn't wish to see I focused on images that were groggy Allowed laziness to lay a mat for me
By Harydo Neon3 days ago in Poets
A Book Launch and a Community of Authors
Shenandoah Fantastic: Mystic Whispers from the Valley’s Vales is far from the first short story collection that I’ve contributed to*.
By Stephen A. Roddewig3 days ago in Writers
The Commute
It was a miserable day. It had been a miserable for a month and Peggy, the old doddery woman, waited at the bus stop in the pouring rain.
By Elizabeth Butler2 days ago in Fiction
My Brother's Eyes Looked Like Jewels
You have to be buzzed in to Grace Hospice Care. I was walking out as they were buzzing in an older black man nodded I had seen earlier in the week.
By John R. Godwin5 days ago in Fiction
Silken Chains
Silhouettes of the female form were given flesh and bone. Silken skin glistened under the spotlight. Dry ice rose around our Icons as they danced atop their podiums in the Square. Heralded for their beauty, their movements were slight, powerful, and sensual.
By Paul Stewart6 days ago in Fiction
Arms. Content Warning.
I hold myself at an arms length from emotion until they, like furious waves, crush me taking me under their tide and holding me down.
By Reece Beckett5 days ago in Poets
Top tipple tricks
Been thinking a lot about drinking, lately. Not least because of a recent episode of over-indulgence and the inevitable after effects. Some readers may recall the earlier articles I wrote about beating the booze. Here I set out an experiment in techniques for cutting down on my alcohol intake. The experiment was successful, the techniques worked, and I have armed myself with an arsenal of weapons in the war against the demon drink. I have yet to fire the first round however. It's all a question of timing (perhaps procrastination).
By Raymond G. Taylor3 days ago in Psyche
The system protects itself
Cheats prevail. Children are taught otherwise, of course. Teachers share- Fairy-tales at circle time About virtue winning through.
By River and Celia in Underland 3 days ago in Poets