Have you ever listened to a plant? Adrienne Adar’s “Sonic Succulents: Plant Sounds and Vibrations” exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, in which plants are attached with sensors to record their vibrations, revolves around the sonic life of plants, presenting recordings of their sounds to be heard by visitors and other plants, and exploring human reactions, perspectives, and relationships with plants and the natural world. Listen to some sample recordings, and write a poem that imagines what transpires during plant communication. Is the content urgent, mundane, profound, or silly? Perhaps play with arrangements of spacing, language, syntax, and sound to create an atmospheric piece that reflects your vision of plants in conversation.

“My feckless Googling had reaped a monstrous reality that I knew was going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Douglas Preston writes in Wired about a nostalgia-induced online search for his childhood best friend that leads him into some unexpectedly dark territory. This week, think about a time when you inadvertently uncovered something (good or bad) you weren’t meant to know—perhaps you overheard a conversation about yourself or someone close to you, followed an Internet search that spiraled to an unintentional conclusion, or submitted an online DNA kit without considering the consequences. Write an essay about the discovery and the actions you took as a response. Did you confront this new truth or carry on as if you had never learned it?

In “Job Opening: Seeking Historian With Tolerance for Harsh Weather, the Occasional Bear,” MPR News reporter Euan Kerr interviews Lee Radzak about his retirement this spring after thirty-six years as the lighthouse keeper at Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior in Minnesota. Radzak says many of the romantic notions about lighthouses can be attributed to the physical space they inhabit on “the edge—the edge of land and of water,” but that there are also difficult and tedious tasks that accompany his job. This week, write a story about someone who resides and works in a space that is intermittently peopled and completely isolated—a national park, a large estate, or a new planet. How do these extremes affect the life of your character? 

Writers! Three days left to send your work to the following contests, all with a deadline of June 15. There are opportunities for poets, fiction writers, and translators. All of the contests offer a first-place prize of at least $1,000 and publication.

Bitter Oleander Press Library of Poetry Book Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Bitter Oleander Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $28.

University of Akron Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication by University of Akron Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Victoria Chang will judge. Entry fee: $20.

Philadelphia Stories Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction: A prize of $2,500 and publication in Philadelphia Stories is given annually for a short story. The winner will also receive travel and lodging expenses to read at Rosemont College in October. Writers currently living in the United States are eligible. Entry fee: $15.

American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prizes: A prize of $2,500 and publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review is given annually for an English translation of a work of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction written in a Nordic language. A prize of $2,000 and publication is also awarded to a translator whose literary translations have not previously been published. Translations of works by Scandinavian authors born after 1900 that have not been published in English are eligible. Entry fee: none.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

A recent United Nations report found that nearly one million species are at risk of extinction in the not-so-distant future, in large part due to human overconsumption of land and resources. This week, write a poem to honor one of these endangered species—perhaps the South China tiger, the Bornean orangutan, or the Hawksbill sea turtle. Frame your dedication as a love poem, an epistolary poem, a note of apology, or an elegy. What would you say to these creatures if they could understand you? For inspiration, peruse these animal-themed poems from the Academy of American Poets archives.

“Lyrical essays are more like jazz than a concerto. The idea that lyrical essays are more poetic than logical has allowed authors to play fast and loose with the truth,” writes GD Dess in his Los Angeles Review of Books review of Elisa Gabbert’s essay collection The Word Pretty (Black Ocean, 2018). Think of a current conflict or issue in your personal life that remains unresolved—perhaps you are uncertain where exactly the truth of the matter lies. Write a lyric essay that engages with the seemingly solid facts of the topic, but allow yourself the freedom to veer into stream of consciousness and follow a “more poetic” logic. 

“Experiencing gives you a ‘first’ person perspective. You see others while you act. Watching gives you a ‘third’ person perspective. You learn something about how others see you,” says Elizabeth Loftus, a UC Irvine professor who studies memory, in Julia Cho’s New York Times piece on how watching a recording of an event can alter one’s initial memory of the experience. Write a scene in which your character attends or participates in a performance, party, or special occasion. Explore how her initial memory of the experience changes once she watches a video of the event. What stands out from the recording that hadn’t been noticed before? How does this reshape her memory?

Submissions are currently open for The Other Futures Award, given by Futurepoem for a book-length work of poetry, prose, or multi-genre writing. The editors of Futurepoem launched the award this year to recognize “innovative, adventurous work that challenges conventions of genre and language, content and form.” The winner will receive $1,000 and will be published by Futurepoem in 2021.

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Using the online submission system, submit a manuscript of any length—the suggested length is 50 to 100 pages—with a $28 entry fee by June 15. Dan Machlin, Carly Dashiell, Ariel Yelen, and Aiden Garabed Farrell—Futurepoem’s permanent editors and staff—will judge. The winning entry will be announced by September 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

“The Other Futures Award focuses on innovative, experimental poetry and cross-genre literature,” write the editors. “We are interested in considering work that imagines new literary possibilities, pushes the boundaries, and questions established paradigms.”

Founded in 2002, Futurepoem is a New York City–based publishing collaborative. It has a rotating editorial panel and is “dedicated to presenting innovative works of contemporary poetry and prose by both emerging and important underrepresented writers.” Dan Machlin is founder and executive editor. Recent releases include Jennifer Soong’s debut poetry collection, Near, At; Emmalea Russo’s debut poetry collection, G; and Aby Kaupang and Matthew Cooperman’s collaborative poetry collection NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified).

Created by former Disney Imagineer David Hanson, Sophia is one of the world’s most expressive robots. She can mirror people’s postures, discern emotions from tone and expression, and react with her own realistic facial movements. National Geographic photographer Giulio Di Sturco says about their first meeting, “She started to look at me and smile, and I looked at her, and at that point for me, she was not human, but there was kind of a connection.” Write a poem about an imagined encounter with Sophia. How do you envision an emotional connection with a lifelike robot? What kind of language would you use? 

“When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life—and theirs,” Kio Stark says in her 2016 TED Talk “Why You Should Talk to Strangers.” As children, we are often cautioned against talking to strangers, but as adults, this warning becomes nearly impossible to heed. Whether online or in person, many of our daily interactions are with people we may never see or speak to again. Once in a while, this anonymity can lead to a level of intimacy and honesty that is surprising and unparalleled even with close friends or family. Think about a time in your life when an unexpected moment with a stranger had a profound effect on you. Write an essay about this exchange, the circumstances surrounding it, and what it meant to you.