Extraterrestrial Challenge Winners

Write a rhyming poem about the first thing you would introduce to an alien on Earth.

At first we thought this Challenge prompt was going to be an easy one. We envisioned submissions filled with quick, zany answers, bright, loud things that would impress an alien and make us laugh.

As we read, though, we were moved and humbled by the humanity and heart in so many of the poems and quickly realized that this prompt was deeper than we expected. Because, as you made us realize, when you really think about it, you're introducing an alien to humanity and earth and what is humanity, how do we interact with our earth? We are imperfect and emotional, flawed and beautiful. How might you sum up human life with an object, a trinket, a machine? Turns out, you can't, not really.

Honestly, this was one of the toughest Challenges we've ever judged (and not just because of the realities Novel Allen's post so astutely pointed out about the judging process!) because so many entries were so damn good. Each poem was unique and well wrought, inspired even! We had three rounds of readings as opposed to the usual two. And yet, as is the nature of competition, we had to make the difficult decision to reward those we deemed the best.

Here are the winners of the Extraterrestrial Challenge. You can check out the full list of winners HERE.

$600 Grand Prize Winner

Paul Stewart for Tektal's Around the World Drinking Session!

Unique among unique. That's what this poem was. We loved and appreciated the brilliant Scottish accent, written to the point where we had to take two, three looks at some stanzas to really understand the wit and humor. We also loved the sustained, controlled belligerence of the poem, beautifully executed and measured, a round of drinks around the world. We've truly never read such inspired descriptions of alcohols and their subtleties nor thought to pair alcohol with aliens, an intriguing and deceptively deep pairing as alcohol is something that makes humans both more and less human as they drink more of it (and so what does that reveal about us to our alien friend?). This poem was a tour de force, a wallop of a time, energetic and flawless from start to finish. Congratulations, Paul Stewart!

$200 Second Place Winner

Rebecca Morton for If I Give a Space Glob a Crayon

We loved this poem because it took the simple crayon and imbued it with meaning. A mother's love for her child is the engine of this poem. The crayon allows the alien to interact with humanity, using the very tool that a mother gives to her child to understand our species. There is a nurturing here that we hope all humans would give a visiting alien (and other humans). We also loved this poem because it was a full story. Backstory and history are here, there is action, the meeting of alien and human, understanding and learning, and finally, a perfect ending, the piece of paper in the grass, left by our author who has been taken by the aliens, perhaps because she was so nurturing, because she exhibits the best of humanity.

By the way, we could easily see this as a children's book... Congratulations, Rebecca Morton!

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