‘the Ghost of the past,’ a Collaborative Poetry Prompt Challenge on the Horizon for the Poetry Lovers

Monthlong prompt in October, with one of our favorite poetry publications in Medium

The last legs of 2021 are knocking at the door. During these times, Paper Poetry ran a couple of prompt challenges during the first three quarters, one of which was a collaboration project with Literary Impulse on ‘eudaimonia.’

We were delighted to receive a massive response on the prompt, and selected content was published in an anthology afterward.

Poetry is a bit less loved genre and often under-valued, in terms of earnings or distribution in Medium. People are more interested in exploring productivity hacks, or improvement pathways, or current trend contents here, hence the essence of poetic expressions are cherished by some poetry lovers only.

A joint project certainly can help the publications to provide new grounds for the poets. Collaborations also help poets and readers to explore a diverse range of poems across publications.

So, we thought of bringing another collaboration project for our writers and readers in October. Guess which publication we are collaborating with this time!

Drumrolls!!!

Let’s give a (big) round of applause for ‘iPoetry,’ the publication joining Paper Poetry in this beautiful collaboration effort.

GB Rogut, thanks a ton! Your suggestion and support on the prompt are appreciated.

So, here goes the details on the prompt challenge, jointly put up by iPoetry and Paper Poetry.

Theme: ‘The Ghost of the Past.’

Does it evoke any unique emotion!

An event perhaps that is circling inside your mind! It might be an incident, a memory, a traumatic experience, a cherished moment either haunting you or giving you a sweet reminiscence. It can be a story, fictional or non-fictional, that you are carrying throughout your life that wants to come out in words. Perhaps, thought of the lost days that you are holding inside your heart.

Please share your story, emotion, and thoughts representing the theme in poetry (from blank verse to rhymed, haiku to the sonnet, free verse to limerick, lyric to Villanelle) and/or prose (whether it is nonfictional or heroic type). If you want to know more details, please explore more from the Masterclass website on the types of poetry or prose.

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” — Carl Sandburg

No short-form or essays are part of this prompt. Word limit: No word limits.

Kicker: Please add ‘iPoetry-Paper Poetry Prompt.’

Title & sub-title: Anything that resembles the theme and the emotions you are about to express in your poetry.

Story Tag: Please submit your content with the tag, ‘The Ghost of the Past.’ You can add the following optional ones if you want — ‘Paper Poetry’ and ‘Poetry’ / ‘Prose.’

Please ensure that you are following the submission guidelines of Paper Poetry when submitting to our publication.

Add Prompt Link: At the end of your poem, add this prompt announcement link.

# of contents you can submit: One for each writer, in each publication.

Writer tag: You can invite other writers by tagging in your story. Keeping in mind the sanity of the tagging, please limit it to 2 writers at max.

Submission start date: October 1, 2021 (when the clock hits 12.01 am on the 1st day of October on the Pacific island of Tonga & Kiribati; GMT/UTC ‘+ 13:00 H’).

Submission end date: October 30, 2021 (when the clock touches the 11.59 pm mark on the 30th on Baker Island & American Samoa; GMT/UTC ‘-12:00 H’).

Prompt winner selection: Each publication will select one winner from the submitted content based on their submission guidelines and content quality. There will also be three honorable mentions.

We will highlight the works of the winning content in both of our publications. In addition, each winner will be receiving a recognition certificate and a small token of appreciation to be sent to the writers. You must have a PayPal account to receive the token of appreciation.

The winners will be announced by the 2nd week of November.

***Disclaimer: Publication editors of ‘iPoetry’ and ‘Paper Poetry’ can submit their work to the prompt but are ineligible to win it. Respective editors of iPoetry and Paper Poetry will have their full discretion to review the submitted contents and announce the winners.

Concluding notes

If you are already a writer in Paper Poetry, please submit your work as you did previously. However, if you are not a writer in Paper Poetry and want to be a part of it in the coming days, please fill out the following Typeform to proceed.

What are you waiting for? Let’s play with words, chalk out the thoughts on paper and share your story with our readers.

Please see the announcement from iPoetry on the prompt in the following link.

Questions! Please let us know in the comment section. Or, you can send an email to [email protected].

Let’s get going.

Paper Poetry Editors Suntonu Bhadra ▫ Carolyn Hastings ▫ Indubala Kachhawa