April 2026 Winners & May 2026 Bamboo Shoots Writing Contest Prompts

A very Happy May to all of you writers out there. April was a great month for writing contest entries. Congratulations to Ben.S.Fairfield, Sarahzh.728, Thomas.A.Loving,  Roserivers, and Piihonua. Each of you has won 10 Bamboo Bucks to spend in the BRP online store. Send an email message to:

[email protected]

letting them know that you’re an April winner, and they will send you a code you can use when you check out of the store. Congratulations again to all of you.

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Now, here are the writing prompts for May. Remember, you can use one of them to get into writing a piece, or you can completely ignore them and write about whatever you want to write about — while simultaneously hurting my feelings. Nah nah nah. Just kidding. Whatever works for you. So here we go:

Last month I was headed from the parking lot into my neighborhood grocery store. Up ahead of me, also headed inside, was a young couple — I’m guessing they were a couple. Of course, they could have been a brother and sister, just two friends, or whatever.

Everything looked normal, and then all of a sudden the woman started gesturing wildly at the man. She yelled something, but I wasn’t close enough to hear what it was. Then the man yelled something at her I couldn’t hear, turned around, and headed back, I’m guessing, to his car? Their car? Maybe she was mad because he forgot the coupons? The reusable shopping bags? The mask and guns?  Left the stove on back home?

The woman simply turned and headed into the store.

So I thought — because creative writers are basically sponges (parasites?) who make hay out of anything that happens — I thought, “Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a story there?”

Of course there is. There always is. Writers will use anything they like to crank out any kind of writing that pops into their heads. Good exercise, even if the product falls short of expectations.

So, now that I’ve said all of that, here are four possible prompts — that you can ignore:

1. Arguments with people we know, or arguments with strangers.
2. Family, friends, or lovers, when they tick you off . . . .
3. Shopping adventures.
4. The price of groceries — Hmmm, that might make a good working title.

Write a story, a poem, a play, an essay, or any hybrid you come up with.

Everybody ready?  Then let’s freakin’ write.

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.