Identity
Explore a moment in your life where you grappled with your concept of identity.
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $500
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-up:
- $30
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Nov 21, 2023
Submissions closed
Dec 13, 2023 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Dec 28, 2023
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $500
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-up:
- $30
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Nov 21, 2023
Submissions closed
Dec 13, 2023 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Dec 28, 2023
About this challenge
The Prompt
Explore a moment in your life where you grappled with your concept of identity.
We invite you to take a deeply introspective journey, delving into a delicate moment in your life when questions of identity took hold. This challenge prompts you to reflect on how your sense of self has undergone transformation and evolution over time, whether it took place solely inwardly, or outwardly as well.
In order for your submission to qualify, it:
- Must explore your concept of identity.
- Can take any form: poetry, free verse, personal essay, etc.
The Prizes
- Grand Prize: $500
- Second Place: $200
- 10 Runners-Up: $30
How to enter
For your story to be eligible, it should adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on December 12, 2023 will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Identity Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more and upgrade to Vocal+ visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.
To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or runners-up prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these countries will not be eligible to win.
Open challenges
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Challenge resources
In Eclipse Challenge Winners
Creator Dane BH is one of our Vocal stalwarts. We’re so grateful to all of your in our Vocal community, and so thrilled by your achievements. This is the third time Dane has won one of our challenges, and she appears too on our Vocal podcast, Write Here, Write Now — take a listen if you haven’t already. But she’s not our winner because we know her: the subtlety and simplicity of we watched the world go dark. together. is what made it our winner of the In Eclipse challenge, with the grace and ease of its lines and observation. As it happens it also expresses the community spirit that means so much to us.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 3 days ago in ResourcesWhispering Woods Challenge Winners
Congratulations to Morgan Christy Rickards for their winning Whispering Woods story, Guardian at the Gate. Morgan has been a Vocal creator since February 2021, and this is their first time placing in Challenge — well done, starting with a win! Guardian at the Gate draws evocatively from Welsh tales of the Cantre'r Gwaelod, a lost sunken kingdom between the forest and the sea. Heledd’s dangerous adventure pulls her towards the water but her spirit is anchored in the woods: Morgan’s writing is atmospheric and exciting.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished about a month ago in ResourcesSnacktime Sonata Challenge Winners
Well, your Snacktime Sonatas made us hungry, and that’s about the highest compliment we have. Food — taste, smell, sensation — is a powerful conduit to the past, to memories pleasurable and painful and sometimes bittersweet, a mixture of comfort and challenge. Congratulations to Penny Fuller for Sativa — it’s a first win for Penny — a hymn to the “secret, unbounded/freedoms” of fresh peas in the pod. The narrative voice of the poem doesn’t really want to be outside, but finds joy in the green things of the earth; this is a lovely work of resilience.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished about a month ago in Resources