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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#90: Down to Earth

On April 22nd 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated in the US. More than 50 years later, this annual event unites millions across the globe, as we turn our attention towards climate action and building a safer home for ourselves and all life on Earth.

Earth Day provides an opportunity for each of us to reflect on our relationship with the planet — and what better way to do that than by writing about it? Whether you follow in the footsteps of the Romantics, who believed in the rehabilitating powers of nature, or the SFF giants whose dystopian novels have long forewarned the demise of Earth Prime, let’s join in the spirit of Earth Day and get closer to nature with this week’s prompts!

This week's prompts

Write a story that weaves together multiple lives through their connection to a particular tree.

Spring – 246 stories

Write a story in which an endangered species (of plant or animal) plays a central role.

Middle School – 94 stories

Set your story in a world living with the consequences of a climate apocalypse.

Science Fiction – 133 stories

Write about a community that worships Mother Nature.

Summer – 82 stories

Start your story with someone sitting on a crowded train and end it with them looking out over beautiful natural scenery.

Spring – 258 stories

Stories

“The Tiger who built a Temple” by Marie McLaughlin

Submitted to Contest #90

The Tiger who built a Temple. Deep in the Jungles bordering Ancient India and Ancient Thailand, a Tiger chased down a Malaysian Tapir for food. Once the Tiger caught the Tapir in it's claws, it snapped the poor animal's neck with it's mighty jaw and feasted. The Forest had seen better days lately, trees chopped down, Shrub and brush lost to man made fires and storms. Prey had been hard to come across as a result. The Tiger walked a very short distance until he found a temple dedicated to the Buddha that had seen better days due to neglec...

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“BRENHOMA” by Mfon Dick

Submitted to Contest #90

There once lived a happy family in the small village of Brenhoma, The Mr Okon's family. Mr Okon had a wife and six children. As said earlier, the family was a happy one. The reason for their constant happiness could be traced to their selfless love for each other and the fact that they believed in nature and worshipped her with all their lives. Mr Okon was a farmer who worked intensively on his farm with the aid of his wife and children. He had lived all his life on the farm. Though he wasn't an illiterate, he had a formal education, he de...

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“The Knotted Eye” by Rebecca Thibodeaux

Submitted to Contest #90

My knotted eye has seen many things. I remember peering out at the world around me, watching squirrels jump from my branches to the branches of my brothers and sisters. Hearing nothing but sweet silence, accented by the rustling of leaves and chittering wildlife. I remember the first time I heard a human voice, the soft and gentle laughter of a child, climbing on my limbs to better see the world that surrounded them. THUD.The sound of an axe breaking my bark, my soul cries out in silence as a man chips away at my life. He hacks through ...

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“Endling” by Alice Parker

Submitted to Contest #90

“Do you know what an endling is, Captain?” the creature asked. “No. I haven’t heard that term before. What is an Endling?” the Captain entertained the question. “An endling is the last individual of an entire species.” He let that sink in. “That’s me. I am an endling.” “All species come to an end eventually. Either through an extinction event or evolution, when they become a new, different species. Nothing is stagnant. The universe is ever changing”, the Captain reasoned. “Yes, but how do you think I feel towards you, knowi...

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“Breaking the Code” by Muhammad Barlas

Submitted to Contest #90

BREAKING THE CODE HOW TO RULE THE WORLD It was the pleasant cool day of 14 September, 2014, that I landed at Kennedy Airport to attend an International conference on Religion & Peace. Leyma GBowee , Nobel Peace prize winner 2012 was the main speaker. Since I got the visa and ticket in my hand, I started dreaming about exploration of this wonderland, which was discovered incidentally a few centuries before but now surpassing the entire world in all areas of human development. In spite of the fact that no othe...

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“Nature at its best” by Tina Miller

Submitted to Contest #90

I worship nature. I am only one of a few who I know of that can actually talk to nature. I don’t know of many out there that has this ability to talk to nature, but it is something that can be a good thing, and a bad thing as well. Nature is thee most wonderous creation in this universe. Nothing beats nature. If you believe in God, then you believe in nature. I worship both. I find myself sometimes leaning more to nature for a...

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“The Community Speeches” by Nico Isbell

Submitted to Contest #90

"Deep in the woods that lie beyond the city, over hills and mountains, there is a community of people that do not worship the normal gods that you would see in mythos or other religions. Instead, they worship one of the Earth. She accepts all ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations without blinking an eye. She is graceful and elegant while being forever wild. She has the skin of peaches, hair as soft as the moss that covers the rocks in the river, a voice that sounds like the water as it runs over that moss, and eyes that can pierce so...

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“Noon and Midnight” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #90

very unfinished, trash writing as usual, doesn't really fit the prompt because it was originally written for a different one. go read 'first impressions' instead, please, it's at least slightly better and maybe (as the kids nowadays say) a little bit funny. anyways, enjoy. xxx There’s something exhilarating about the dark. I’m not supposed to like it. I know. But I can’t help it. Some of my friends do things like stay up until nine, or wake before sunset, or be seen on their roof wearing bright yellow at noon. (That was ...

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“Forbidden To Fall” by M Belle

Submitted to Contest #90

“The carriage gave a shock of a hustle and down she fell, right to the bottom of the ravine floor,” I couldn’t help a scowl as I looked over at my sister. She was on her hands and knees, scrubbing inside the Duchess’ fireplace. Her grey hair fell in a long sheath from the slightly peaked top of her head down to the floor. I watched the strands run a lover’s touch across the sooted bricks before swinging backward. “I knew you would be scowling,” Ben said, turning to look at me. She rose slowly from her bruised knees. In her hand she clen...

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“May Queen” by Mandy McCool

Submitted to Contest #90

It has been said that she was born in a sunbeam and would pass from this world by moonlight. Makes a life and a death sound pretty romantic, doesn’t it? Silly ancient fables tend to do that in order to make difficult ideologies seem pleasant. I mean, who in their right mind would actually want to live up to a story dreamt up hundreds of years ago and passed along with each and every generation? I sure as hell wouldn’t. But that isn’t my problem. That wasn’t my calling. That prophesy belongs to my older sister. Daisy is the May Queen, an...

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“one of the senses” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #90

the fair-skinned girl is crying again. she leans against you, your rough knots making rivets in her smooth forehead, her fast tears sliding down your bark and darkening a patch of dirt at your base. when at first she came running through the forest to you, of course you could sense that something was wrong, but you weren’t able to tell what. though as soon as she touched you--falling to her knees on the ground, lurching forward onto her torso, scraping the pads of her fingers against your uneven brown skin as her light hair became spattered ...

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“Worship ” by Sandra Claros

Submitted to Contest #90

The first sparks of the day hid the lights of the diamonds of the celestial firmament.. - He is getting into the barn, now – I said, listening to that crawling given by those tired footsteps. Soon after the sunrise, the soft and sweety- mannered man - a sir, I dare say ! - firstly showed up his corduroy suit - always smelling olive oil! – his personal scent. - Now, he &n...

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“Things Like That Don't Happen In This Neighborhood.” by Konstantina Cheiladaki

Submitted to Contest #90

It was a fishing village as far back as she could remember. With waves crashing against the grey of the shore, their foam soaking people through. And little by little, every time the foam landed on them, they got a little of the Sea; until they became one, their minds liquid as Hers, an array of emotions only She could ever fathom.And oh, how they adored Her.She was the Mother that birthed them all, the divine blue of their quiet lives.It was a quiet village indeed, and as the grey and blue washed over them, nobody took more than they needed...

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“ turbulent water” by Richard Devanney

Submitted to Contest #90

The water was turbulent around the body, the remains of the whale were torn, ragged, showing white blubber and specs of red meat. Most of the Sharks were circulating at a safe distance , wary of being too close to the easy meal as the large tiger shark tore large chucks of foul rotting flesh, gulping them aggressively, it could sense the boats and human crews approaching , but didn’t react or change its behavior. The placid meal it didn’t recognize as a prophecy or gift, it just tore of pieces and swallowed them whole as fast it co...

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“Wichita Beach” by Mike Garrigan

Submitted to Contest #90

A sandpiper scurried up from the ocean. It nipped at the hunk of bread dangling from Malcolm’s hand. Malcolm had fallen asleep in his beach chair. “Hey!” Malcolm said to the sandpiper. The tiny bird scurried back toward the water with a chunk of Malcolm’s baguette in its beak.“You OK?” TK said. “Yeah. Damn bird.” “Seltzer?”“Sure.”Tatiana Karenina handed her husband, Malcolm P. Sharpe, a glass bottle of homemade seltzer. The cool bottle beaded with condensation. Malcolm up nodded, turned the cap, listened for the fizz, and took...

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$50

Prize money

813

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 23, 2021 EST

Won by Nina Chyll 🏆

Title: The Tree Surgeon's Dictionary

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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