$500 Writing Awards for Our Community!
Money for conferences, classes, childcare & more
Hello Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:
🤓 Reader’s Corner: What I’m Reading This Week
🏆 CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Writing Awards - 2025
🤓 Reader’s Corner: What I’m Reading This Week
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday - (non-fiction) - This is our “Read Like a Writer” Book Club pick for May! This is a popular book that resonates with everyone from creatives to business people. It’s a mix of philosophy and self-improvement.
Reminder: Our Book Club meeting is May 18, 2025 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Details and Discussion Qs here.
In case you missed it:
Summer is going to be super busy for me, so I’m launching our 2025 writing scholarships now. Besides, why should we wait to support all of you wonderful, talented people? 🥰
🏆 CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Writing Awards - 2025
Creative work is hard work, and sometimes you need a little boost from your friends to support you on your journey.
So last year, I ran a scholarship drive, and our CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY community raised the funds for these awards—I adore your generosity and love seeing writers helping other writers! 💛
Prize: $500 to spend on whatever you need to support your writing career
Examples:
writing workshop or conference,
classes online,
books for research,
word processing software,
freelance editor or writing coach,
childcare to give yourself some time to work,
to pay bills, or
whatever else you need to support your writing.
Winners: Three (3) writers!
Each winner will receive $500
To apply:
Make sure you’re a member of CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY, since this is an award from our community, for our community. Please join us (free or paid)—it’s warm and friendly here!
In the Comments section:
Describe what writing means to you in 2 to 3 sentences, AND
Include a short sample of your writing (250 words or less) - it’s ok if it’s an excerpt from something longer.
(note: there will be a tiny bit of leeway if you go over the word count—i.e., a short sentence—but if you exceed it by more than that, your entry will be void because it’s not fair to others if they get less space. 😉)
How winners are chosen:
Two (2) winners will be personally selected by me
based on their writing sample:
I’m not looking for perfect.
I am looking for potential and for the writing to reflect you, whatever your essence is. Maybe it’s passion. Maybe it’s professional reporting. Maybe it’s luscious prose or imaginative sci-fi or Hemingway-esque brevity. There’s not a single quality I’m looking for other than for you to express yourself authentically.
One (1) winner will be selected by community votes
based on whoever has the most Likes on their Comment below as of May 15, 2025 at 12pm PDT.
feel free to share your entry with your friends and family, including on Substack Notes, to get support/votes
Winners will be announced in my May 16, 2025 Happiness Sprinkles newsletter in our Protagonist Spotlight section.
We are good people here, so any entries suspected of spamming, using AI or bots, or other unfair voting or writing methods will be automatically disqualified.
(I’m putting the legal fine print at the bottom of this post since it’ll be boring to most, but it’s there if you want it!)
🗳️ YOU VOTE for one of the winners
Weigh in on which writer will win one of the $500 Writing Awards!
Read the entries in Comments of this Post
Cast your votes by “liking” the Comments of your favorites. (Vote for as many as you want. Think of it as cheering.)
Check back often for new entries! Voting closes on May 15, 2025 at 12pm PDT
We’re doing these awards a little differently than our last round of writing scholarships. If you missed the reasons why, catch up here:
Writing has been my heartbeat, pulling me from the brink and giving me a reason to live authentically, my words spilling onto the page without shame or fear. Each sentence I craft is a lifeline, offering healing for others while suturing together the raw, tender pieces of my own soul.
Here is a prose poem I wrote called: breath for the black kernel
Death is the silent seed from which life blooms, a black kernel lodged in my chest, splitting open to push green through my bones—every heartbeat a sprout, every sigh a leaf trembling in its shade. It lies still, voiceless, leeching deeper as I rise—my flesh a thin soil, my blood a rain it drinks without sound.
Yet every petal of existence falls to feed its quiet roots—my dreams droop, my hands wither, my voice frays into dust, all sinking to fatten the dark below. I’m a garden it tends, a tuft it reaps—each step I take scatters pollen for its hunger, each breath a gift to its grip.
Death waits, the mute farmer, harvesting me petal by petal ‘til I’m naked, my tendrils its own, swallowed back to the seed that never asked.
Writing for me, is to help a reader Awaken to the Magic in their lives & feel joy & wonder & adventure. Metabolize their sorrow and see with hope again.
My writing sample, from my poem The Whispers in the Wallpaper,
There once was a woman who lived all alone
In a cottage of gingerbread, candy, and stone.
With teacups that danced when she wasn't looking,
And a stove that sang lullabies while she was cooking.
At first, these oddities gave her delight ~
A touch of whimsy to brighten her nights.
"How charming!" she'd giggle. "How perfectly queer!"
As the saltshakers waltzed and the mirrors would leer.
But Tuesday last week, something changed in the air,
When she noticed a face in her wallpaper's flare ~
Not just any old face with eyes, nose, and chin,
Her own reflection, stretched in a grin.
"Hello," said the face with a tilt of its head.
"I've been waiting to meet you," it wickedly said.
"I'm the you that you hide when the day turns to light,
I'm the thoughts that you bury and push out of sight."
She blinked and she squinted and rubbed at her eyes,
Convinced it was exhaustion spawning these lies.
But the face remained steadfast, its smile growing wide,
As it whispered sweet nightmares it had stored inside.