[CLOSED] Writing Contest Now Accepting Submissions: Family & Celebrations
Join TTO’s Holiday & New Year Writing Contest
UPDATED: This contest is closed and not accepting new entries.
The Taoist Online proudly announces its second writing contest!
We’re calling out to TTO’s more than 800 writers to send their best articles for the chance to win cash prizes and have fun joining us in this contest. Reading your stories in TTO’s first writing contest was amazing — you can check all the entries here. The theme was Death & Afterlife — very fitting for our publication, but quite a serious and sombre subject. This time around, we chose a lighter theme: Family & Celebrations.
Theme: Family & Celebrations
The end of the year is marked by holidays and celebrations all around the world. Most people have probably heard of Christmas, but there’s also Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Yule, Kwanzaa, Zarathosht Diso, New Year’s, Simbang Gabi, Omisoka, among many other festivities. Hopefully, there’ll be articles from our amazing writers to link to each of the celebrations above by the end of January.
People around the world celebrate this festive time of year in one way or another, with wishes of well-being, happiness, unity, reunion, charity, and gratitude. There are celebrations to give thanks, celebrations to pay our respects to our ancestors, and celebrations to welcome the new year. There are people yearning for the opportunity to get together with their family and loved ones. Others who dread the unescapable family dynamics they’re forced to partake in the name of the holiday spirit. For some, this is a time of happiness and good cheers. For others, it’s a moment of grief and tears.
The end of the year looks different for each and every one of us — even if the Netflix movies want to make us believe everyone is going to find their soulmate during a snowstorm and get true love’s first kiss under a mistletoe to break the Grinch’s curse. Wait, I think I may have a few movies mixed up there… But you get what I mean — your experience of this time of the year is unique, and we want to hear more about it!
You know, all those quirky family traditions, or the New Year’s resolutions you broke not ten minutes after the countdown was finished… Perhaps you remember how magical things were growing up, or maybe you want to ensure things will be different for your kids. Some people equate celebrations with big family get-togethers, which sometimes translate into lovely reunions and others in disastrous arguments. Maybe, you’re here to tell us how you have a chosen family as your support — no blood ties connecting you, but more love than anyone could have asked for. Perhaps you want to share how you hate the holidays and any celebration at all and what the hell was Dickens thinking when he ruined the perfect Scrooge by making him aware of the Christmas spirit?
Don’t feel constrained by the family in the theme — we want your stories, even if there’s no family involved. And your celebrations don’t need to be end-of-year celebrations either. Be it a celebration of harvest time, springtime, or winter solstice and be it a religious, cultural, or personal celebration — we want to read your stories! We encourage our writers to get creative with the theme — any creative idea that inspires you is very welcome. You just have to be clever and connect it to the theme.
We’re looking specifically for non-fiction stories— we want to have your take, your experience, and your view on the subject you’re talking about. It’s absolutely fine if the celebration or the family is fictional, but we must also hear from you, your thoughts, experiences, and why this story is relevant.
If you have any doubts, please don’t hesitate to ask questions in this article’s comment section or directly on TTO’s Discord channel.
Send us your best stories
UPDATED: This contest is closed and not accepting new entries.
To enter the contest, writers must follow these rules:
- You must be a writer for TTO.
- Your article must be between 300–2000 words long. We accept all formats of stories, including poetry (poems are exempt from word count limits).
- Your story must fit the theme: “Family & Celebrations”.
- Your story must adhere to TTO’s publishing guidelines and be sent in draft format.
- Your story must be non-fiction.
- Your story must have the tag “TTO Writing Contest”.
Extra considerations:
- If you’re not a writer for TTO, you can request to join the publication.
- It’s FREE to enter the competition.
- Each writer can send in multiple stories.
- There’s a limit of one prize per participant.
- Editors from TTO are welcome to participate but aren’t eligible to win prizes.
- Your story must be sent between the 19th of December and the 21st of January. The deadline is 11:59 PM PDT on the 21st of January.
- If your story doesn’t have the tag “TTO Writing Contest”, it won’t be eligible for prizes. However, you can update the story and add the tags after publishing.
Stories sent after the deadline won’t be eligible for prizes. All stories will be published while the contest is running, so check the tag to read amazing stories and get inspired by your fellow writers.
Winner and Prizes
The team of editors at TTO will work together to choose the three winners from all stories we receive for the duration of the contest. Each editor will choose their favourite stories without input from the others — all writers have an equal chance of winning!
Each participant may send several entries but is only eligible to win once.
The cash prizes will be paid out through the tipping system authors have set up on Medium. Alternatively, the winners can contact the editors through Discord or email to discuss payment.
1st place: $50 + podcast interview with Patrick Stewart + article hightlited in the front page of TTO
2nd place: $30 + article highlighted in the front page of TTO
3rd place: $20 + article highlighted in the front page of TTO
All prizes are covered by donations from TTO’s editors and are their individual responsibility. For the “Family & Celebrations” contest, Nanie Hurley 🌿 and Amanda Weir-Gertzog donated the 1st and 2nd prizes, while Patrick Stewart donated the 3rd prize and will conduct the interview in his podcast.
The editors involved in this contest are Patrick Stewart, nathanlovestrees, Amanda Weir-Gertzog, Nanie Hurley 🌿, InYah, and The Sturg.
The winners will be announced on the 24th of January on TTO and also on all social media channels, including our Discord.
TL;DR
UPDATED: This contest is closed and not accepting new entries.
Write your best story for “Family & Celebrations” and send it to TTO before the 21st of January with the tag “TTO Writing Contest” for a chance to win cash prizes! Winners will be announced on the 24th of January.