The Humanities Center is excited to announce this year’s contest theme: The Stories We Tell! Students are invited to submit their creative work in one of two categories:
- Creative Nonfiction Reflection essay—Tell an origin story and how it connects to BYU
- General Storytelling—New this year! This category explores the broader theme “The Stories We Tell” and welcomes submissions in a variety of artistic mediums, including visual art, short story, and more.
Please see the full prompts below for more detailed information.
There will be a first-place winner and a runner-up in both categories.
Theme: The Stories We Tell
Deadline: Saturday, March 14, 2026
Awards:
- 1st Place (in each category) : $500
- Runner-up (in each category) : $250
Both undergraduate and graduate students are invited to participate. Submissions should indicate which section (Creative Nonfiction or General Storytelling) they are submitting to. Please send all submissions and any questions to byuhumanities.center@gmail.com by Saturday, March 14, 2026.
Creative Nonfiction Prompt:
In his 2024 book The Crisis of Narration, Byung-Chul Han argues that, as members of contemporary society, we have lost our ability to define ourselves based on narratives, and have therefore lost our capacity to create communities.
In an effort to preserve our common narrative and community, and in celebrating 150 years of BYU, the Humanities Center invites you to share an origin story from your own life. It can be the origin of an organization, a relationship, or anything else with a clear beginning point. Focus your essay on how you have found meaning in the narrative of this origin story, and how it connects to the BYU community. The essay should:
- Fall within 750-1500 words
- Include a reference to an artifact of the Humanities (a work of prose, a poem, a piece of art, etc.).
- Explicitly reference an origin story that is tied to or takes place at BYU
For reference on the importance of origin stories, see the recent blog post written by Rex Nielson, director of the BYU Humanities Center: https://humanitiescenter.byu.edu/origin-story/
Artistic Narrative Prompt:
In accordance with the Humanities Center’s theme of Storytelling, we are excited to expand our contest to include a broader section in creative submissions. This section invites students to share stories of any kind, and will accept submissions in any medium (short story, artwork, etc.) The guidelines for submissions are:
- The writing, artwork, etc. must stand on its own, and not as a piece of a larger narrative.
- Written prose submissions must range between 1,500 and 2,000 words.