October 2025 winners and November prompts for the Bamboo Shoots writing contest

Congratulations to Robandmichele and Piihonua.  You’ve each won 5 Bamboo Bucks to use in the BRP online store. Send a message to

[email protected]

and they’ll send you a code you can use when checking out.

For this month, let’s go exactly 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500 words.  When you submit your piece, format it as follows:

Your Title Here (100 words)
Your Title Here (200 words)
Your Title Here (300 words)
Your Title Here (400 words)
or Your Title Here (500 words)

So if I have a 300 word piece entitled “Email Me,” I’d title my entry

Email Me (300 words)

Here are the November prompts.  Remember, you can use them as springboards, or you can write about anything you choose.  Pieces written in any language are welcome, and no translation is required.  If you do provide a translation, however, you might reach a wider audience.

So here are the prompts you can use or ignore:

Frogs/Toads
Hawaiian seasons
Museums
Paddling
Trees
Laundry
Prizes
Cursing
Beauty
Snapshots
Praise
Mourning
Practice

Don’t forget to include your word count in your title.  Exactly 100, exactly 200, exactly 300, exactly 400, or exactly 500 words.

Jim Harstad advises that you overwrite and cut words rather than underwrite and add words.  Cutting helps ensure tighter writing.  Adding may do that, but it may also weaken your poem by adding extraneous fluff.

Okay, folks, let’s 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.