Stone Soup holds a Flash Contest during the first week of every month. The month’s first Weekly Creativity prompt provides the contest challenge. Submissions are due by midnight on Sunday of the same week and should be under 1,500 words. Up to five winners are chosen for publication on our blog. The winners, along with up to five honorable mentions, are announced on the blog. Submit via our Submittable site. The Weekly Creativity prompts are intended to help you “break the ice” and start writing. The prompts, all written by students, just like you. The prompts are different from each other. Each prompt makes challenges you think, to be creative. You might note a few different ways you can approach the prompt. As a rule, we advise skipping the way that seems easy or obvious. Always give some thought to the point-of-view you are taking. Who is the observer? Are you writing from the “first person” perspective, through the eyes of your character? Are you the “omniscient” narrator who sees all and knows all? If you are writing a prompt every week, then think about changing your points of view from week-to-week. Every contest has its own winners’ page, where you can read all the winning entries for the month. We are currently working on the winner’s page, but we will announce this new page when we announce the October winners in the following month! We are proud of everyone who takes part in the contest. Thank you for trusting us with your work! Good luck! Flash Contest #72, February 2025: Create a story, poem, artwork, or musical composition that reimagines Valentine’s Day in an unexpected way—Our Winners and Their Work Our February 2025 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #313 (provided by the Stone Soup editorial board), which asked to create a story, poem, artwork, or musical composition that reimagines Valentine’s Day in an unexpected way while avoiding typical Valentine’s words like love, roses, and hearts, and instead, use unconventional imagery, themes, or emotions to express connection and affection. As always, thank you to all who participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Honorable Mentions, listed below, and our Winners, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “A Saint’s Last Whisper” by Wing Hey Chan, 15 “Pebbles” by Naomi Ng, 13 Honorable Mentions “Here’s Your Order” by Sophie Lin, 11 “Unhappy Very Unhappy Valentine’s Day” by Katherine Liu, 6 “A Pianist’s Soulful Melody” by Gavin Liu, 15 “Unveiled” by Lexi Neiman, 17, “Hidden Treasures” by Lily Wu, 12, “When the Silver Tip Dances Again” by Victoria Xu, 10 “The Ocean’s Bond” by Erica Zhan, 12 A Saint’s Last Whisper Wing Hey Chan, 15 A Saint’s Last Whisper In secret halls where whispers stay, a priest still dared to disobey. He joined the hands the law forbade, and for his crime, the price was paid. His final breath fades into gray. The cold bars whispered of despair, A frozen grip in the stagnant air, Where shadows clung to the damp stone walls, And silence echoed through endless halls. His soul, imprisoned, felt the chill, a slow, cruel bite, and time stood still. Behind the bars, he …Read More Flash Contest #71, January 2025: Create a story, poem, artwork, or a musical composition based off of the painting “Champs de Mars: The Red Tower” by Robert Delaunay using the ekphrastic method —Our Winners and Their Work Our January 2025 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #312 (provided by Stone Soup students Emma Hoff), which asked that participants create a story, poem, artwork, or a musical composition based off of the painting “Champs de Mars: The Red Tower” by Robert Delaunay using the ekphrastic method. As always, thank you to all who participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Honorable Mentions, listed below, and our Winners, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “Modernism’s Blinding Earthquake” by Gavin Liu, 15 “The Red Tower: When the Old Order Makes Way for the New” by Nathan Qu, 13 “Mr. Eiffel” by Derek Zhang, 11 Honorable Mentions “Through The Eyes Of Time” by Wing Hey Chan, 13 “I Remember” by Isabel Sands, 15 “The City of Gray” by Sydney Kesselheim, 12 Modernism’s Blinding Earthquake Gavin Liu, 15 Leaning city buildings crumple in the tower’s flame. Angels fall — or are they attempting to rise on Jacob’s ladder to evacuate modernism’s earthquake Sky’s gloominess tests angels’ golden wings to avoid fiery-red beams as Delaunay’s frantic mind holds no doubt of what demise modernity will bring— his desperate plea to Parisians to see civility’s tumbling collapse and the Eiffel Tower’s meaning— earth forgotten—unable to withstand the heavy iron, steel, and electric light as nature’s goodwill lags behind modernism’s deception. Nature’s resistance—crackling lightning striking Paris’s elegant tower made red— to unsnare people’s ignorance to instead wake in sun’s golden tower of love. The Red Tower: When the Old …Read More Flash Contest #70, December 2024: Write a short story from a blizzard’s perspective, a poem on your favorite part of winter, or create an artwork showing light and darkness —Our Winners and Their Work Our December 2024 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #311 (provided by Stone Soup students Sage Millen, Meleah Goldman, and Emma Hoff), which asked that participants write a short story from a blizzard’s perspective, a poem on your favorite part of winter, or create an artwork that shows light and darkness As always, thank you to all who participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Honorable Mentions, listed below, and our Winners, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “Snowflake” by Scarlett Yi, 13 “Snowflakes: A Winter’s Tanka Poem” by Matthew Zhang, 13 “From the life we left” by Dara Jin, 11 “Waiting” by John Gabriel Sperl, 12 “Snowflake Light” by Tang Li, 12 Honorable Mentions “The Wonders of Winter” by Evee Dev, 9 “BLIZZARD” by Julian Yang, 10 “My View” by Sharbani Datta, 10 “Winter’s Breath” Haoran Yang, … Continue reading Stone Soup Monthly Flash Contest & Winners’ Roll