March 2025 Bamboo Shoots Writing Contest & February Winners

February winnahs!

Congratulations to JD, Lilinoe Stupplebeen, and Kimurayoshihiro9. You’ve won $10 Bamboo Bucks for your February entries.  You can spend those bucks in the Bamboo Ridge Press online store. Send a message to

[email protected]

and you’ll receive a code you can use when you check out of the BRP online store.

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March Bamboo Shoots prompts:

Now for the March writing prompts that you can use or choose to ignore.  Write whatever you want if the prompts don’t inspire any writing.  You can write in any language, and no translation is required.  However, you may reach a wider audience if you provide a translation.

So here are the prompts you can use or ignore:

Things can change for the better.
Kung hei fat choi.
I confess.
You went eat yet?
We didn’t have much back then.
I will always be here.
No one noticed me.
It fit perfectly.
One day one of us will have to go alone.
A news story caught my attention.
Can I take a picture of you?
And how you know all this?
How ’bout all night long?
Shame swept over him.

Okay, everybody, let’s write!

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BR Writing Jam – Spring Equinox

Here are some prompts from our writing jam, using Spring to revive an old idea or start growing a new one.

• Metamorphosis: Write about a character’s “caterpillar to butterfly” moment—when something small sparks a quiet transformation. This could be a new character or someone you’ve written before who’s ready for change.
• Conversations with the Sun: Imagine the sun as a character who’s just returned from winter vacation. Write a dialogue between the sun and a curious human or animal.
• Balancing Act: Inspired by the day/night balance of the equinox, write about a character balancing two opposing desires.

• Spring Renewal: What makes you feel renewed? Write about that activity, place, person, etc.
• Showers Bring Flowers: Spring is often associated with new growth and rain. What do you think of when you think of rain? What emotions come up? What memories?
• What are signs of spring in Hawai’i? How do the people of Hawai’i experience spring uniquely?

 

By participating in the Bamboo Shoots community, you agree to the following rules:

1. We reserve the right to remove content that promotes hate or gratuitous violence. Be respectful and courteous to others.
2. All contest challenge entries must be submitted by the designated
3. Enter as many times as you like using a trigger/prompt (this page).
4. Contest Challenge entries can be prose (including short stories, nonfiction essays, or whatever you write), poetry, or plays -- or any type of hybrid writing you dream up.
5. Every entry must have a title -- unless you choose to enter a haiku, in which case you can simply enter the word haiku in the title section.
6. All content/entries should be original work. You retain ownership of your entries; however, we may ask to use them elsewhere on the site or on social media to help promote Bamboo Ridge and/or the Bamboo Shoots online writing community.
7. Winners will be announced with all possible speed after the end of each month. Winners receive 10 Bamboo Bucks credit to spend in the BRP online bookstore. Bamboo Bucks have no monetary value outside of the online store.
8. Entries may also be selected for publication in the regular Bamboo Ridge Journal. If your piece is chosen, the editors will contact you via the email address on file.
9. Please note that you need not enter the contest challenge in order to post on Bamboo Shoots. You may post other writing if you choose. We welcome that here:  Click this link to go to Shoot da Breeze.