Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Worth the Wait: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Beach bumming in a small Caribbean beach town sounded like a perfect way to end our 6-month trip through Mexico and Central America. Or so we thought. The foul, fishy stench of rotten seaweed hit our nostrils as we stepped from the cramped bus and looked out at a rather depressing, empty, and underwhelming black sand beach. It was pouring with rain, and we had to quickly fish out our ponchos. We thought, this couldn’t be it, could it?
By Sh*t Happens - Lost Girl Travel12 days ago in Wander
Change, but…. Content Warning.
They said she was ill. - Ill? What’s the deal, Annie thought. She was only 5. She spoke to angels, told them, “I want to be healthy… I want to be free.” They said, “Not yet. This is not for nothing. It has a meaning. Everything’s going to be alright.”
By Maya Or Tzur11 days ago in Fiction
The Politics of Playing Dress-Up
Well, to start off I'd like to say a happy world book day to all who celebrate. I know I haven't really posted anything on my socials about it but I'm not a jubilant kind of person. I lay low most of the time. Let's start off with a popular anecdote from the vaults...
By Annie Kapur13 days ago in Geeks
Early March 2026: 4 Goals Accomplished
It's early March and I've now accomplished my 4th writing goal for the year of 2026. Before diving into the behind-the-scenes of it... why not tell you up front what that accomplishment was? I was published in a 2nd publication for this year. Published in Helix Literary Magazine out of Central Connecticut State University. You can read it for free right now!
By Stephen Kramer Avitabile12 days ago in Writers
The BAFTA Awards
By now, in a stunning departure from recent years, most of the world is aware of what happened at the BAFTA film awards. Social Media Headlines will tell you the bare bones: that John Davidson, a Tourette's Syndrome advocate, shouted a racial slur at two Actors of Colour, Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo.
By Natasja Rose14 days ago in Psyche
A More Human Vocal
When we launched Vocal nearly a decade ago, the world was a very different place. LLMs did not exist, and stories were created one at a time by people sitting down to write, revise, and share something personal. Many of our assumptions about publishing, trust, and participation were built for a world where effort and output were inseparable.
By Justin @ Vocal13 days ago in Resources
Becca
"Everything is so... flat." Denille said stupidly as she looked around her new neighborhood. She looked around at the muted desert where even the smallest sign of life seemed to have given up. The plant life was shrubs that were half cooked by the heat and where there should have been a lawn, a mess of white rocks laid glistening in the sun. Even the sky looked stretched thin, like the sun had ironed it smooth. She’d moved from Riverside, where at least there were hills, but here in Barstow, everything felt baked and brittle.
By Sara Wilson12 days ago in Fiction
From ad men to mad men
It's after 2am in the morning when a local police patrol vehicle in Northern New Jersey spots a figure costumed as Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, proceeding southbound on the sidewalk along Lydecker Street. Though the hunchback’s costume stuffing offers added insulation, it's January, and friggin’ freezing. Carefully, the officers slow down, gently question the subject, and offer him a ride home.
By David W. Maury13 days ago in Humor
Bomb Scare
It was 2027, and the world never thought it would happen. A missle hit the United States, but it wasn't where they had anticipated. A little town in the northeast was hit by a missile strike, they didn't know why, and they didn't know exactly where it hit, but they did know it was a coastal community, somewhere between Maine and Delaware.
By Gregory Payton12 days ago in Fiction
