Challenge
Essence, Embodiment, and Relational Reality
The Failure of Reduction and the Need for Synthesis There is a persistent failure in many modern attempts to explain what a human being is. Some frameworks reduce the person entirely to matter, insisting that identity, consciousness, morality, and meaning are nothing more than emergent properties of physical processes. Other frameworks move in the opposite direction, detaching spirit from reason and grounding belief in intuition alone, often at the cost of coherence or accountability. Both approaches fail because both misunderstand essence. One denies that essence exists at all. The other treats it as something vague and undefinable.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast11 days ago in Writers
Farah’s Silent Battle: A 17-Year-Old’s Journey Through Loss and Survival in Gaza
On January 19, 2026, in Gaza City, a young girl named Farah Mahmoud al-Kahlud stood before the world, showing the eye she had lost in a brutal attack on her home in Jabalia. At just 17 years old, Farah’s life has been irreversibly altered. In that single moment of violence, she lost not only her leg and her eye but also her parents—the pillars of her childhood and the guardians of her future. What remains is a teenager caught between unbearable grief, physical pain, and the uncertainty of survival in one of the harshest humanitarian crises of our time.
By Salman Writes12 days ago in Writers
Onyx Storm. AI-Generated.
Onyx Storm Chapter One: The Black Storm On a moonless night, the city of Azora was struck by a strange storm. It wasn’t ordinary wind, but a whirlwind of black onyx stones swirling in the sky, whispering ancient voices. People fled in terror, but Liara, the girl with silver eyes, felt the storm calling her by name.
By Alhouci boumizzi13 days ago in Writers
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 collection of anthropological essays by Russian naturalist and anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. The essays, initially published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 and 1896, explore the role of mutually beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or "mutual aid") in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It is an argument against theories of social Darwinism that emphasize competition and survival of the fittest, and against the romantic depictions by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who thought that cooperation was motivated by universal love. Instead, Kropotkin argues that mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of human and animal communities and, along with the conscience, has been promoted through natural selection.
By New Oasis International Foundation 13 days ago in Writers
The Challenges
You may not win these challenges ,but keep writing. You should keep writing cause that is your vision, your mind and you have love for it. Nothing else matters especially when you have these because you can give what you love to people and they'll see the work behind it. The reason why I said they'll see your vision because what you are writing what you had brainstormed and seen what you wanted to give out about the topic you're talking about. I think when you envision what you want to say and write it , then they will see what you mean and have a talk about it to their peers, family and many others .
By Erica Williams13 days ago in Writers
Nine Souls for a Bloody Mary. Content Warning.
If you think back to the autumn into winter challenges, you may remember that I found the villanelle challenge psychologically abusive and you may have accepted a free pass to my insanity show in one of these pieces. (Fuck you, Vocal, for that villanelle of regret challenge. I hope it was as torturous for the team to read them as it was for me, as it's only fair to reap what you sow. (Parentheses intentionally left open. Did it again.
By Harper Lewis15 days ago in Writers
