Each month we offer a prompt to subscribers of Prime Number Magazine to write a 53-word story—no more, no less—and send it to us by the fifteenth day of the month. Our judges select one winning story, and the author receives a book from Press 53 as well as publication in Prime Number Magazine.

Jean-Luke Swanepoel

November 2020

Prompt: Write a 53-word story about thanks

Followed by 53-Word Author Bio

BUY A DONKEY

The last thing the self-help presenter had said was buy a donkey. So Irma bought a donkey. The presenter, being South African, had in fact said baie dankie, Afrikaans for “thank you very much,” but Irma found the donkey to be an excellent listener, and urged her friends to buy donkeys as well.

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Jean-Luke Swanepoel was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and immigrated to California with his parents and younger brother in 2005. Much of his writing is influenced by his memories of South Africa, and he returns there for a visit every year. He is the author of The Thing About Alice, published in 2020.