September 2026 Challenge
Body
The waiting room. The late-night emergency. The person who takes an Uber instead of paying for an ambulance. We’re seeking flash fiction, nonfiction, and poetry about health, sickness, disability, and the gap between the care we need and what we can access.
Write about chronic illness and what it means to live inside a body that requires ongoing negotiation. We’re also interested in prose and poetry about birth, death, and surviving the middle. Who continues to show up—nurses, community health workers, that one neighbor who brings over dinner on bad days—and who disappears when health becomes a burden? If health is wealth, what happens when we can’t afford the bill? If you’ve ever been frustrated about getting sick in a system that makes it expensive to get better, we want you to write about it.
We welcome writing of all genres and forms: flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work. Three winners will be selected and published at the end of October. To get a sense of what we publish, read our past winners.
We also offer editorial commentary on submissions. For an additional fee, you’ll receive two feedback notes from our experienced editors or readers. To learn more and submit, head to Duosuma.
Prizes:
September 1, 2026
up to 1,000 words of prose / 2 pages of poetry
$10