OHF Weekly Writing Contest + Cash Prize for the Winner!

You may recall that Our Human Family has done a special poetry series each May for the past two years (2020, 2021), titled Equal People. It’s been so popular that this year we’re mixing it up a little by jumping into fiction and making it a short story contest. We’ll be featuring works inspired by the following prompt:

The empathy pill — a single pill (or multiple pills, you decide) that when taken provides unimaginable empathy into the lived experiences of another ethnic group.*

* NOTE: As a 501(c)(3), OHF Weekly does not publish works that endorse or oppose political candidates.

People talk about love being the greatest emotion, but there can’t be true love without empathy. The contest rules for Equal People 2022 are below — plus we’ve added a cash prize for the winner. Make sure you read all the way through to the end!

The OHF Weekly Editors
Clay, Stephen, and Sherry

Submission Rules

The prompt must be so incorporated into the story as the theme or primary plot device such that if it were removed, the story wouldn’t make sense.

Prompt The empathy pill — a pill (or multiple pills, you decide) that when taken provides unimaginable empathy into the lived experiences of another ethnic group. (NOTE: As a 501(c)(3), OHF Weekly does not publish articles that endorse or oppose political candidates.)

Submissions. Must be an original, unpublished work of fiction in English. No poetry or nonfiction. Prose fiction only. New writers, please include the following information: your name, email address, location (city), account links to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for tagging purposes, a brief 200-character bio (including spaces), and profile headshot.
Word count. Between 1,000 and 2,500 words.
Images. Please attach 1 image with a credit line that includes the photographer’s name, the name of the platform, and a link to the page where the art was found.
Submission Deadline. Monday, May 9. The final draft (a Word document) should be emailed to submissions@ourhumanfamily.org.
Permissions. By submitting to OHF Weekly Equal People 2022, writers agree to grant OHF Weekly editors permission to edit for clarity and agree that all edits are final. (We’re not out to change writers’ voices.)
Publishing Date. On or around Friday, May 20, 2022.
Copyright. Writers retain all copyrights. By submitting to Equal People 2022 writers grant OHF Weekly temporary exclusive publishing rights of the submission for one month beginning the day after the contest ends. Writers also grant OHF Weekly editors permission to repost links to their submissions via OHF social media. We encourage writers to share notice of their published Equal People entry via their social media. After that month, writers agree to include this tagline with subsequent publishing: Originally published at OHFWeekly.org [link to story].
Prize. The five (5) submissions published to the OHF Weekly website with the most “likes” by 11:59 p.m. (Eastern), Thursday, June 2, 2022, will move to the finalist round of judging by our editors. Finalists will be announced on Friday, June 3, 2022. The winner will be announced on Sunday, June 5, 2022, and will receive 150 USD! So tell all your friends and share the link to your OHF Weekly published story. Someone’s going to win a nice little chunk of cash! Why not you?