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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 New Planet of Gibberzol” by Maira Finn

Submitted to Contest #90

I looked up at the smoggy Earth sky. It used to be bright blue, sometimes filled with puffy, white clouds, but not anymore. Global warming had changed all that. It was a good thing I wouldn't have to stay here much longer. The dirty fog was making it hard to breathe. I was helping my parents load up the spaceship so we could take off to live on a better planet. It would take some time to adjust to, but at least it wouldn't be as toxic as living here on Earth had become. "Addilyn, what are you doing?" Dad called. "This old planet ain't gettin...

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“Demon, Man and the Beast” by Amogh Bodhi

Submitted to Contest #90

*This story is based on current situation of Adivasi Tribal people in India – Amogh* I was travelling through the green forests, farms and amusing breezes to the Hemalkasa village in Gadchiroli district, by a private transport. This district has been declared as adivasi district, due to forty per cent population of adivasi tribe people in this district. The word ‘Adi-vasi’ means ‘original inhabitants’ as they are residing in Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. These people are honest and simple. The adivasi area has least cases of ...

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“The Peepul Tree” by Ravi Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #90

The Peepul Tree Today again, I saw the old man sitting on the bench under my peepul tree. It was the third day since my return from my Kolkata PG, and every morning I had been coming down to the condominium park for my morning jog and yoga. And on each of these mornings, I had seen the old man sitting under this tree; he was always alone and in a pensive mood, and though I often thought that I’d sit beside him and talk to him, I could not muster enough courage. Why, I thought, should I intrude upon his thoughts? But today I suddenly found my...

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“A Letter in a Sandcastle ” by Serine Achache

Submitted to Contest #90

Dear A,I’m writing this letter in the back of our last month’s electricity bill –the one I have yet to pay –on the arm seat of a train to Oran, and by the time it reaches you, there will be many borders, many languages, an ocean and a sky separating me from you.I’ll be a life away from you but right now, I’m still on the M-O12 train, still a few stations away from the place we both called home, holding nothing but my old black leather purse and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to keep me company. It’s what actually sparked in me...

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“Bea Aglacya” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #90

I lay in a hospital bed with a mattress the texture of a bunch of flowers, framed with something like rubbery vines, boa constrictor thick, with metal facets. It seemed like someone had grown it in a lab somewhere, stabilizing it with machine parts. Pictures and other decorations hung from walls resembling pollen under a microscope. Homelike, to an alien. A guinea pig-like nose and mouth wiggled on the nurse's hairless humanoid face. Her mouse ears twitched. "How are you feeling?" I stared into the Abreya's goat ...

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“Journey to Earth's Heaven” by E.C. Nickelson

Submitted to Contest #90

He took his seat and waited for the long black hunk of metal and gears to start on its journey. He was a people-watcher rather than a social butterfly, so that's what he did. He watched people, observed them. "Stop that, Mylo! Miranda, don't even!" He heard a blonde mother reprimand her blonde children."Mary! What're you doing, Darlin'? We're sitting..." The man was cut off by the dark-skinned conductor."All aboard!!! Train leaves in three minutes!""We're sitting here, not in the next car, Mary!" He watched as the red-skinned man took her sl...

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“Mother's Garden” by Jenne Gentry

Submitted to Contest #90

Mother Nature is calling. Are you ready to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem? It's easier than you think. Paradise is possible. Come to Mother's Garden @ The Katsip Nature Center Earth Day, 2021 at 8:00 AM Rosalie folds the flyer in half and sets it back where she found it. The small Formica table in the break room on the fourth floor is always scattered with flyers and brochures on just about everything you can think of. This one, however, is out of the ordin...

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“The Mother” by Maria Johnson

Submitted to Contest #90

(Author note Trigger alert this story explores life, death, the grieving process and alternative beliefs.)When did I first realise that I needed to break away from conventional religion?That’s a hard one. I guess it didn’t come as a sudden break, but more as a slow erosion.I’ve heard some people refer to religion as a `faith` whilst others refer to it as a `belief`. I guess for the first part of my life I fell into the former camp, my religion was my faith. I followed in my mother’s footsteps, quite literally, without any pause to rea...

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“Wear Flowers In Your Hair” by Nikita Linivenko

Submitted to Contest #90

“And Spring brought me the frightening laughter of the idiot!” -Arthur Rimbaud A Season in Hell On a Friday in April, we crossed St. Johns bridge outta Portland and into the sawmill country below. Before we pulled out, the lines on a local college station were open, taking requests and Big John put in the call. They were swamped and the DJ finally threw on “Velouria” ten minutes later as we curved along Oleson road, passing Hideaway Park. The DJ must’ve been jolted by our Pixies request, because right after that song finished, he spun “D...

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“Ever After” by Eden Arbon

Submitted to Contest #90

July 15th, 1821 Oh how the sun was shining! Everything its light touched was illuminated in a cast of gold and silver. The blue sky stretched endlessly over the scattered cottages which made up the quaint little town of Newbay. Newbay was a small little town nestled in the middle of a large thick forest. Almost everyone in the town knew each other, and everyone lived harmoniously and happily. Each working to better himself, and help his neighbors. “C’mon Sarah!” Austin Harrington, a handsome young man yelled as his eyes sparkled with joy...

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“Dogi” by Don Boye

Submitted to Contest #90

My name is Dogi. That's what mother calls me, that's what I am known to be. I'm a Koala from the Southern regions of Australia, and I am dead. I once lived by a tall gum tree in a bushland where I could run free. Where for hunger I had no need, because I had all the eucalyptus which on I could feed. Everything was all sleeping and all eating, until mother one day got news of worry. Our bushland was gradually becoming scanty land, the trees disappearing at a steady rate. One two a time, I would see three-four a man, with five-six some...

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“Maddened Days” by Christian Hinrichsen

Submitted to Contest #90

Maddened Days 2052 Two years have passed since mankind was caught in the Apocalypse of 2050, raising water of up to 2100 meters have wiped out most of coastal cities California has now become a mammoth mess of water canals forcing people to live in houseboats and overpopulated areas such as San Angeles. The Crimean Directorate has now taken overpopulated cities and rules them with an iron fist. A new American government has now been issued in Juneau Alaska led by General William “Rage” Reynolds. A former combat hero in the Battle of Pa...

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“Saif's Diary” by Kashish Bansal

Submitted to Contest #90

Dear diary, It was a nice day, I Saif, today I played a lot with Mansi, my best friend, she is a Hindu. We were playing in Mansi's backyard. Meanwhile her grandmother called us. She prepared a plate with sweets, diya(curved shape candle), small round earthen pot filled with holy water, flowers, rice, red colour thread, and dry red colour. I asked granny curiously that what this red colour is for she replied in their custom it is called kumkum and this plate is prepared for Govardhan Puja. "Govardhan! Puja? What's this all," I asked confu...

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“Bonbibi - the protector” by Ritu Sarkar

Submitted to Contest #90

In an age when Hindu majoritarianism has divided India on communal lines, and Islamic radicalism is on the rise across the globe, a local goddess admired by both Hindus and Muslims shines a beacon of hope on what it means to be truly pluralistic. Sundarbans was spread across Jessore, Khulna, Barisal, Bakherganj and almost the entire part of 24 Parganas between Hooghli and Meghna. In the study of folk culture many folk goddesses are found there. One of them Dakshin Rai. The identity of the Dakshin Rai, we know from the various sources that hi...

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“The Laws Of Nature” by Rethabile Ntsane

Submitted to Contest #90

A researcher, George Greg, in the midst of his misdirection stumbled upon tribal people hunting a deer. He watched them from behind a big oak tree, it’s width hiding his slim frame. People in the lower regions of Lukika were known or rumored to be cannibals and so George fear for his life. He stood there as still I he could, lips pressed onto each other, eyes shut begging any deity above to make them leave as his heartbeat increased. The tribal people felt George’s presence by the scent of his fear. They, armed with bows and arrows, approach...

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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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