Poetry, Flash Fiction, Micro Essay, Themed Call Creative Colloquy | Connecting Creatives Poetry, Flash Fiction, Micro Essay, Themed Call Creative Colloquy | Connecting Creatives

2025 Ground to Sound Film and Art Festival

For the Second Annual Ground to Sound Film and Arts Festival we encouraged wordsmiths to submit works of flash fiction and poetry exploring the intricate connection between the bustling Tacoma landscape and its unique watersheds. We wanted to explore themes centered around our shared waterways and stewardship of the sea.
This program was in partnership with Foster’s Creative and City of Tacoma' Environmental Services.

Pieces selected for performance:

  • Ripples in the Water

  • Feels Like Plastic

  • The Orange Moon, and Everything Else

Honorable Mention:

  • Sea Glass

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Poetry, Flash Fiction, Micro Essay, Themed Call Creative Colloquy | Connecting Creatives Poetry, Flash Fiction, Micro Essay, Themed Call Creative Colloquy | Connecting Creatives

Lunar New Year: Year of the Wood Snake

2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake and in honor of Monkeyshine season and the Chinese New Year CC opened a themed call for submissions! In Chinese astrology, the Year of the Wood Snake is a time for growth, stability, and creativity. It's also a time for personal development and navigating challenges.

We're encouraged the community to submit a short story, poem or essay revolving around these symbolic themes (or centered on the Wood Snake itself).

Pieces selected for performance:

  • I am the Tree Snake by Sasha Victor

  • Wasteland by Christina Slack

  • Magic by Julie Baldock

  • And Dust You Shall Eat by Ronen Perry

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Prose Leah Mueller Prose Leah Mueller

Cities Where You’ve Lived, As Boyfriends by Leah Mueller

Portland is your hipster boyfriend with a tongue ring, the one who is always stoned, the guy who can’t be counted on for a commitment. He wants to have many other lovers, and doesn’t care if you have them, too. Portland will get together with you when he feels like it, not the other way around. Portland insists that you be hyper-aware of popular culture, and treats you as if you are stupid if you are unable to keep pace with him. You won’t be able to keep pace, because Portland lives for Doug Fir concerts, shots at the Sandy Hut, and standing in long lines for doughnuts and tacos while sporting a three-day beard growth. You and Portland have a stormy but loveless romance, and you finally leave him for Kalamazoo. When you see Portland again a few years later, you marvel about how much he has matured, and feel sad that the two of you met at the time that you did. Portland then acts like he wants you back, but he really doesn’t.

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Prose Nick Stokes Prose Nick Stokes

Adjust by Nick Stokes

Drink coffee. Pack food, gear, shingles, propane, feed, a mattress, rebar, a box of cookies and whiskey, mail, nails. Drink coffee. Bullshit. Wrap. Eat a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Feed. Fix tack, build ropes, bullshit. Knock a rock from a shoe. Dunk in the river. Long. Drink beer. Eat. Read. Stop.

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Poetry, Flash Fiction CC Message in a Bottle Poetry, Flash Fiction CC Message in a Bottle

“Evergreen”

We asked our writers to send us short pieces on a simple word: EVERGREEN. Perhaps you think first of The Evergreen State, or a color that evokes a memory in vivid detail. Maybe your mind settles on that which is timeless. Here are a few of the pieces we received… maybe you’ll find one in the wild.

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