Vocal Curation Team
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Collaborative, conscious, and committed to content. We're rounding up the best that the Vocal network has to offer.
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The Ritual of Winter Challenge Winners
Welcome to the Winners Announcement for The Ritual of Winter challenge. This prompt focused on winter rituals and the meaning that settles into them over time. The top pieces stay grounded in ordinary acts and repeated routines, letting winter shape the work through pace, attention, and restraint.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout an hour ago in Resources
FPS: The Last Flame Challenge Winners
Welcome to our first Winners Announcement of the year and to the final challenge in the Fall Poetry Series. The Last Flame invited writers to sit with endings, using fire as a central image to consider what remains when something burns out: ash, warmth, memory, silence, or the faint promise of what comes next. The strongest pieces treated endings as gradual rather than sudden, allowing them to flicker, dim, and linger.
By Vocal Curation Team2 days ago in Resources
FPS: Roots and Branches Challenge Winners
Welcome to the final Challenge Winners Announcement of the year and thank you for being part of Vocal in 2025. Before we begin, a quick note: the first set of challenges for next year are now live. We hope you’ll take a look, and stay tuned, there’s more ahead, including some major announcements coming to Vocal in 2026.
By Vocal Curation Team21 days ago in Resources
FPS: Villanelle of Regret Challenge Winners
Some feelings don’t fade. They repeat. The Villanelle of Regret challenged poets to write into that return. To let regret, longing, and obsession build with each pass, rather than resolve. The strongest entries trusted repetition to carry the weight.
By Vocal Curation Team28 days ago in Resources
The Forgotten Room Challenge Winners
Some doors stay shut because crossing the threshold changes something. In The Forgotten Room, writers stepped into spaces thick with dust, memory, and silence. What they found there wasn’t always safe or clear, but it was honest, layered, and unforgettable. Here, setting isn’t background noise; it’s the heart of the story, carrying the weight of what’s been hidden or avoided.
By Vocal Curation Team30 days ago in Resources
FPS: Harvest of Memory Challenge Winners
It's that time again, welcome back to the Fall Poetry Series! What do we carry, and what carries us? The Harvest of Memory challenge invited poets to gather what they couldn’t bear to lose, a moment, a person, a feeling, and hold it in language. The submissions were full of quiet power: some aching, some joyful, many both at once.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout a month ago in Resources
Maps of the Self Challenge Winners
Happy Thanksgiving Eve. We’re especially grateful today for the ways you show up with honesty, creativity, and heart. We all carry maps. Of who we’ve been, what we’ve felt, and the paths we’ve taken to get here. In this Challenge, we asked you to chart something that can’t be folded up or pinned to a wall, to trace a shape made of memory, identity, or change.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout a month ago in Resources
FPS: The Sound of First Frost Challenge Winners
For The Sound of First Frost, we asked you to tune into the subtle shift where autumn fades and winter begins. That in-between time when the air turns sharper, the light leans paler, and everything, from sound, to scent, to texture, feels just a little different.
By Vocal Curation Team2 months ago in Resources
Through the Keyhole Challenge Winners
It starts with a look you were not supposed to take. Through the Keyhole asked writers to explore what happens next, the truth that seeps in, the lines that blur, the things we cannot unsee. Here are the pieces that hold that moment open just long enough to let the light in...
By Vocal Curation Team2 months ago in Resources
FPS: Poetry of the Hunt Challenge Winners
Welcome back, writers. This time, the chase took center stage. For Poetry of the Hunt, we asked poets to explore what it means to pursue something, or someone, that may never be caught. Whether the chase unfolded in the wild or within, these pieces moved with instinct and tension, carrying the quiet ache of almost finding what was lost.
By Vocal Curation Team2 months ago in Resources
FPS: Haunted Echoes Challenge Winners
🎃 Happy Halloween and welcome back to our Fall Poetry Series! For this round, we asked writers to distill fear or mystery into just three lines. No cheap jump scares or horror clichés, just the lingering unease that creeps in when the lights go out.
By Vocal Curation Team2 months ago in Resources
