Upcoming Readers Write Deadlines

Readers Write is a feature in The Sun where readers share their personal writing on a given topic—a unique fixture of the magazine since the section’s inception in 1978. Send us your true story on an upcoming topic, and if we publish it you’ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription.

Not sure what to write? See below for some prompts to spark an idea. Writing style isn’t as important as thoughtfulness and sincerity, and topics are intentionally broad to give room for expression and interpretation.

Fuel: Entries due February 1, 2024
Perhaps yours is a massive thermos of coffee first thing in the morning, or a bottle of those barely regulated pills they sell at truck stops. Or possibly you’re so used to running on empty you wouldn’t know how to operate on a full tank. Have you ever been stranded on the side of the road, waiting for someone to show up with a gallon of gasoline? Send us your story—just make sure it’s a true one—and we’ll consider it for this upcoming Readers Write.

Misunderstandings: Entries due March 1, 2024
Have you ever realized that something you believed for years—about a friend, about your family, about how to jump-start a car—isn’t right at all? Have you been misjudged because of assumptions others made about you, or have you done the same to someone else? Tell us about the time you had a fight with your spouse because you misheard what they said or you got your boss’s instructions all wrong. Just remember, we publish only true stories in Readers Write. Got it?

The Basement: Entries due April 1, 2024
Concrete floors. Stone walls. The vaguely menacing furnace. Bare incandescent bulbs that turn on with the pull of a chain. Were you scared of it when you were young? Did you huddle there when the news issued a tornado warning? Or is it the place you retreat from your family nowadays? Get to the bottom of it and send us your true story about “The Basement.”