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!

August 1st - September 29th

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.

• This can be fiction or nonfiction — your own life or someone else’s. All we’re looking for is a story about childhood that captures emotions, insight, and wonder in one fell swoop.

Media submissions: Depict a childhood memory, however way you wish to do so.

• You can depict objects that have a significance to you, a snapshot from a memory, or anyone that was significant to you when you were a child. Take creative freedom with this one!
• When submitting, please briefly describe the object/memory you have chosen to depict.

May 6th - June 30, 2024

About the theme

This cycle’s theme is Sense. We perceive beauty, emotion, and pleasure with our senses. Humanities, in addition to preserving culture and bringing people together, is meant to please our senses. Art brings a special flavor to our lives, literature transports us to other worlds, and music touches our souls in ways words never could. The humanities are beautiful to us — that’s why they’re valuable.

Text submissions: **Write about a world where we are limited to just one of our senses.

• You can take creative strives with this one. The sense you spotlight doesn’t have to be one of the five known ones. What would a sixth sense look like? How would we wrap our minds around it?