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Travel Snaps
Tell us the story of the best trip you've taken using original photos and words.
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $500
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-up:
- $20
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
May 06, 2024
Submissions closed
May 25, 2024 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Jun 18, 2024
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $500
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-up:
- $20
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
May 06, 2024
Submissions closed
May 25, 2024 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Jun 18, 2024
About this challenge
The Prompt
Tell us the story of the best trip you've taken using original photos and words.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words; now we are challenging you to use a combination of original photography AND words to tell the story of your best trip ever. Whether you captured the moment using a high-end digital camera, a 35 millimeter Kodak, or your trusty iPhone, we want to see what made the trip unforgettable. The judges will be looking for a combination of evocative photographs and vivid storytelling in winning entries. Your story only needs to contain one embedded original photograph to be eligible. Time to dig through those photo archives!
In order for your submission to qualify, it must:
The Prizes
How to enter
For your piece to be eligible, it should follow the rules above and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and submitted to the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on May 24, 2024 will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Travel Snaps 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.
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Challenge resources
Summer Solstice Challenge Winners
‘Safety Net’, by Meredith Harmon, begins in a confiding tone. ‘What town?’ the tale asks. ‘We're an enclave. We're farmers. We till the soil like our forefathers, and our children's children's children will till it, till the end of time.’ There is a folkloric sensibility here, suited to the prompt, but also something contemporary and practical. This winning story of a community trying to protect and preserve itself has echoes of Shirley Jackson’s famous tale ‘The Lottery’, Meredith is a strong Vocal Creator with 225 stories to her name; and this is her second first place win of a challenge; huge congratulations.
By Vocal Curation Team8 days ago in Resources
Let's Talk About AI and Vocal Challenges
We might as well cut to the chase. Yes, we run every challenge entry through our AI detector; if we find an entry has been generated, it’s disqualified. As Justin Maury, Founder/CEO of Vocal has written, we use these detection systems because we know our readers enjoy authentic content; we also ask you to disclose when you’ve posted on the platform using AI assistance. But a different issue comes into play when we’re thinking about Challenges, and we believe it’s an important one.
By Vocal Curation Team10 days ago in Resources
Dialogue Poetry Challenge Winners
Hannah Moore is a first-time grand prize winner with her dialogue poem, On Receipt of Bad News. This was a poem that genuinely engaged both with the exchange of our prompt, but also focussed on the way poetic rhythms of language could support the writer's conceit. It felt very truthful, too, the way one speaker wishes to ignore the news and focus on practicalities; there was a quiet heartbreak, here. Well done.
By Vocal Curation Team15 days ago in Resources