Below is an archive of past prompts.

You can use this page as inspiration for your submission to the current competition, or as a repository of thoughtful questions. Your choice!

November 2nd, 2024 — January 3rd, 2025

About the theme

This cycle’s theme is Tradition. We’re all defined by tradition and culture. This influence may not be explicit, like celebrating holidays, but it exists regardless. We’re invariably sculpted by custom, belief, and heritage. This competition cycle, we’re embracing what makes us all unique.

Text submissions: Write about a family tradition.

• Your work can be nonfiction or fiction — your own life or someone else’s. Consider especially the meaning said tradition holds.

Media submissions: Depict or embody connection. What does connection look like to you?

• The more unique the submission, the better. We really appreciate a blurb into how you believe your submission best ties in with the prompt when you’re submitting.
• You can pick family gatherings, objects that connect people, or anything you think fits. The more creative, the better!

August 1st - September 29th, 2024

About the theme

This cycle’s theme is Childhood. The humanities captures the essence of youth through its various forms of expression. We remember childhood as a time of our lives where we had boundless energy, a will to discover, and limitless wonder. When writing or philosophizing, we’re exercising the part of ourselves that make us human — the part of ourselves that so many of us leave behind as we grow up. The humanities is imagination and beauty.

Text submissions: Write a story about childhood.