The setting of a story can act as more than just a backdrop, such as in Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” in which the train station acts as a physical representation of movement and decision. Louisiana’s landscape and climate plays an active role in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Storm.” More recently, the modern-day Brooklyn setting in Daniel José Older’s paranormal novel Shadowshaper was praised in a 2015 New York Times review for offering up “parallels between personal histories and histories of place.” For this week’s prompt, write a piece of short fiction that makes the setting an active character in the story. Consider the protagonist’s relationship and history with their physical surroundings. How can you make a place come to life and interact with the subjects of your story?

In “Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness,” published in the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, poet and novelist John Keene reflects on language as “a medium, a field, a tool, a site of being and expression and communication.” Through his translation work, Keene engages with writing that is often overlooked, such as poetry “by women writers, by LGBTQ writers, and by writers of African descent,” in order to publish the work for more readers. Choose a poet whose work you admire and translate one of their poems into another language or form. Perhaps you attempt a translation from one language to another or try “translating” a sonnet into a pantoum. What would you like to express through this exchange of language?

The end of the month and its last contest deadlines are arriving sooner than you might expect. With a deadline of July 30 or July 31, these awards include opportunities to publish single poems and flash fiction, as well as longer projects. All offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more.

Bard College Fiction Prize: A prize of $30,000 and a one-semester appointment as writer-in-residence at Bard College is given annually to a U.S. fiction writer under the age of 40. The recipient must give at least one public lecture and meet informally with students but is not expected to teach traditional courses. Deadline: July 30. Entry fee: none.

Howling Bird Press Book Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Howling Bird Press is given in alternating years for a book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. The 2021 prize will be awarded in poetry. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: $25.

Munster Literature Centre Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition: A prize of €2,000 (approximately $2,180) and publication in Southword is given annually for a short story. The winner also receives a weeklong residency at the Anam Cara Writer’s Retreat on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork and accommodation at the Cork International Short Story Festival. Billy O’Callaghan will judge. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: €18 (approximately $20).

Narrative Spring Story Contest: A prize of $2,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a short story, a short short story, an essay, a short work of graphic fiction or creative nonfiction, or an excerpt from a work of fiction or creative nonfiction. A second-place prize of $1,000 is also awarded. The editors will judge. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: $27.

New Millennium Writings New Millennium Awards: Four prizes of $1,000 each and publication in New Millennium Writings and on the journal’s website are given twice yearly for a poem, a short story, a short short story, and an essay that have not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5,000. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: $20.

Prairie Heritage, Inc. Jan Garton Prairie Heritage Book Award: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction published in the previous year that “illuminates the heritage of North America’s mid-continental prairies.” Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: none.

Press 53 Award for Poetry: A prize of $1,000, publication by Press 53, and 50 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Tom Lombardo will judge. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: none.

Red Hen Press Novella Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press is given annually for a novella. Donna Hemans will judge. Deadline: July 31. Entry fee: $25.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

“A cliché is thoughtless, whereas love is thoughtful. A cliché reproduces ideas originating in the culture, not in lived experience; it is antithetical to love because whereas love is alive, a cliché is dead. It’s an empty husk,” writes Sarah Gerard in “On Falling in Love With Your Characters” published in Literary Hub, an essay that explores the writing process of her second novel, True Love (Harper, 2020), as she experienced the end of one love and the beginning of another. Write a personal essay that examines a cliché about love, or a conventional cultural “truth” that is often associated with love. How has this played out in your own life, with your own past or present experiences of love?

“I regret that my fondness for cows, combined with an overactive imagination, may have carried me beyond what is comprehensible to the average Far Side reader.” In the fall of 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published his “Cow Tools” cartoon, which confused so many readers that he was compelled to issue a public statement, revealing that even his own mother was puzzled by the meaning of the cartoon. Write a story that centers around an object, maybe even a tool, that becomes integral to your character’s survival. Perhaps you explain what the object does or you keep it a mystery as to why your character needs it so badly. Either way, have fun with your overactive imagination.

What can you tell from a kelp’s DNA? In a paper published earlier this month in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists reported findings that the genes of bull kelp found in New Zealand bear different genetic markers because of an earthquake that occurred eight hundred years ago, a reminder of how nature has the power to recover from a disruption. Write a poem that revolves around a specific idiosyncrasy or personality trait, and imagine its connection to an ancient ecological disaster. You might take inspiration from the undulating forms of seaweed waving underwater as you braid in themes of history, continuation, inheritance, and the twinning of destruction with renewal.

The deadline is approaching for the PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History. Starting this cycle, PEN America will award two writers grants of $15,000 each, expanding the program from a single grant of $10,000. The prizes will support literary works of nonfiction that use oral history to “illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement.” Only unpublished works-in-progress are eligible.

Using only the online submission system, submit a writing sample of 20 to 40 pages, 6 to 10 pages of transcribed interviews, a curriculum vitae, a project outline, a project description, a statement on how and why oral history is being used in the project, and a statement on how the grant would be useful to the project by August 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Established in 2017, the PEN/Jean Stein Grants are awarded by PEN America, a nonprofit organization advancing freedom of expression, and are made possible by a donation from Jean Stein, whose is remembered for pioneering the genre of narrative oral history. The inaugural grant recipient was Aleksandar Hemon, who received the grant for How Did You Get Here?: Tales of Displacement, a project to record the experiences of immigrants fleeing genocide in Bosnia.

In “What We Found in Writing: Authors on Creativity in Quarantine” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, thirteen authors describe their experiences of writing and not writing during the past several months of quarantine. Ada Limón writes: “What struck me, almost immediately, is that fear was more incapacitating than despair. I could surrender to a hopelessness and still make something. Even if it felt like a last gasp of my own humanity or love or tenderness, I could still write it. However, if I focused on fear, I was always silenced.” Write a personal essay that examines how your own creativity has ebbed and flowed during this time. Are there things that have been easier or more difficult to write about? Where have you found inspiration? What has been unexpected?