Introducing the Fall Poetry Series
12 prompts. $15,000+ in prizes. A season of poems.
Challenges on Vocal have always been about more than winning. If you joined us for the Summer Writing Series, you saw what happens when a strong creative spark meets the power of this community. Thousands of entries, new voices discovered, and a steady rhythm that kept writers returning to the page.
We know many of creators love poetry. So we built a series just for you.
All 12 Fall Poetry Series prompts open today, September 12, 2025.
How prizes work
We are keeping the expanded recognition from SWS so more great work gets seen.
- 5 Winners receive $200 each
- 15 Runners-up receive $15
- 10 Honorable Mentions receive $5
These Challenges are available exclusively to Vocal+ members. Your subscription gives you access, helps fund these prizes, and fuels more opportunities for creators across the Vocal community.
The FPS Lineup...
Falling Leaves
- The Prompt: Write a haiku that captures the fleeting beauty of autumn leaves.
- Submissions Close: 9/26/2025
- Winners announced: 10/8/2025
The Sonnet of Shadows
- The Prompt: Write a sonnet balancing light and dark in love, memory, or imagination.
- Submissions Close: 10/3/2025
- Winners announced: 10/15/2025
Masks We Wear
- The Prompt: Write a poem about disguises, or the truths we keep beneath the surface.
- Submissions Close: 10/10/2025
- Winners announced: 10/17/2025
Lantern Light
- The Prompt: Write a poem that revolves around a single lantern, literal or metaphorical.
- Submissions Close: 10/17/2025
- Winners announced: 10/24/2025
Haunted Echoes
- The Prompt: Write a spooky or eerie haiku that distills fear or mystery into just three lines.
- Submissions Close: 10/24/2025
- Winners announced: 10/31/2025
Poetry of the Hunt
- The Prompt: Write a poem about the hunt and what it means to capture (or miss) the thing you seek.
- Submissions Close: 10/31/2025
- Winners announced: 11/7/2025
Letters to the Moon
- The Prompt: Write your poem as a letter or direct address to the moon.
- Submissions Close: 11/7/2025
- Winners announced: 11/14/2025
The Sound of First Frost
- The Prompt: Write a sensory-rich poem that captures that transitional moment when autumn tips toward winter.
- Submissions Close: 11/14/2025
- Winners announced: 11/21/2025
Harvest of Memory
- The Prompt: Write a poem on gathering, harvests, memories, or moments you want to keep.
- Submissions Close: 11/21/2025
- Winners announced: 12/3/2025
Villanelle of Regret
- The Prompt: Write a villanelle about regret, obsession, or longing that won’t fade.
- Submissions Close: 12/5/2025
- Winners announced: 12/12/2025
Roots and Branches
- The Prompt: Write a poem about roots and branches, what grounds you and what carries you forward.
- Submissions Close: 12/12/2025
- Winners announced: 12/19/2025
The Last Flame
- The Prompt: Write a poem on endings, using flame or fire as your central image.
- Submissions Close: 12/19/2025
- Winners announced: 1/7/2026
We can’t wait to see what you create.
About the Creator
Justin @ Vocal
Founder/CEO of Vocal. COO/President of Creatd ($CRTD), the parent company of the Vocal platform.
Keep reading
More stories from Justin @ Vocal and writers in Vocal and other communities.
Comments (21)
These are fantastic prompts!
The thematic progression from Autumn Leaves to Giving Thanks feels like a poetic journey through the season’s heart, inviting writers to weave their unique voices into its crisp, golden tapestry.
My voicemail account is not counting the wards, can you help me, sir?
These are fantastic! Thank you for creating them.
Hi Justin, I just read through the rules for the (very inspiring) challenges for this fall. I have a question about what "unpublished" means in the context of the Vocal Challenges, which I added to the Leaderboard before seeing your post. Do you mean print publishing, or any kind of publishing including online or on social media? There seems to be a confusing number of definitions out there right now that writers need to follow. For instance, Rattle uses "un-curated" as a designation to consider whether something is published or not. Meaning the work hasn't been a part of a collection. Then, book publishers seem to consider online publishing unpublished unless you are entering a contest. In that case, online publishing is considered published. In other words, by your definition the first view anywhere is Vocal or is previous online publishing acceptable? I ask this because a piece that 3 people have read and a piece that 10,000 people have read don't seem equal in terms of publishing to me, but much of life doesn't measure out in cups of fairness. In addition, does this group of contests exclude past pieces already posted on Vocal? Usually we would have been allowed to include previous pieces that match the challenge description. Not afraid to ask the "dumb" questions. Thanks, Natalie
I'm in
My favorite season!🤗 I can’t wait to participate and read all works🍂🤎
Oooooh. These might draw me back in. Good luck, everyone.
Fall and poetry, two of my favorite things spun together. Super excited to dive into these!
Juicy! 🥹🥰
I love the prompts. I've been trying to be more present on Vocal in all ways. Writing, reading, commenting etc. The prompts help me when I'm in a bit of a writing slump and I love reading why other create. Looking forward to these ones as Fall is my absolute fav time of year 🤗
Thanks for this splendid series of provocative prompts!
Thank you for this announcement, Justin. I am going to make it a priority to take part in these poetry challenges. Lately I have a tough time creating even just one story a week due to my heavy commitments with my family. But I am going make this happen and I appreciate what you and the Vocal team are accomplishing for us.
Looks like I pre-empted you in my last piece, would have liked to see some different forms, and non-poetry challenges, but will keep us going if we can get onto vocal 😁🐱😹 Seriously, Congratulations on putting these together, though I do have an aversion to writing poetry
Well. This is excellent. For the poets out there. Will there be more fiction coming (I'm happy with the poetry challenges) but just hoping there will be more for fiction writers too, even if it's after this run of 12. Well done, Justin and team, though.
Oh wow, it’s a true feast for a poet’s soul! I’m going to be reading so much good poetry, I can’t wait!
Prompts for the first two poems appear to be identical, is that an error? Exciting news though, I look forward to writing and reading others entries to these challenges
These are awesome prompts! I'm so excited to do this!
This is a dizzying number of prompts- kudos to Vocal for launching the next Challenge series before the current one expires. This momentum is amazing! I'll look through the prompts as I compulsively check to see if my latest Challenge entry moves through submission into publication. That's what I get for waiting until the last day.......
This is so exciting Justin. Thank you for all these challenges. Now we all get to see how far our minds will go and make stronger our writing muscles. Always in when given the opportunity to improve my writing. Now I get to improve my poetry, without thinking too much about improving my fictional stories. 🙌🏽👏🏽🙏🏽♥️🤗
Justin, a long time ago weren't Challenges open to everyone. I remember entering one but didn't win though. At this time, I cannot afford to be a Vocal+ member, but I would really like to enter this Poetry challenge. I wish all challenges could be for all creators here.