Win $100,000 with 3,000 Thoughtful Words. The Nine Dots Prize Is Back

"Dusk Call" -- Oil on canvas, Frank Holmes

Have you ever wished you could be on the receiving end of a $100,000 advance to complete a book idea that you've been percolating? If you're a writer, here's a writing contest where this is precisely the prize you'll be privy to if you win. It's called The Nine Dots Prize.

The Nine Dots Prize is a prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary societal issues. Entrants are asked to respond to a question in 3,000 words, with the winner receiving $100,000 to write a short book expanding on their ideas.

The aim of the Prize is to promote, encourage and engage innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. The name of the Prize references the nine dots puzzle that we've all encountered at one time or another – a lateral thinking puzzle which can only be solved by thinking "outside the box."

The theme for this year's 3,000 word challenge: Is there still no place like home?

The deadline for your 3,000-word response is January 21, 2019, which means that if you are a slow writer you only have to write 1000 words a month to reach the goal, or 33 words a day, or just over a word an hour.

There's more to it than writing a 3,000-word statement. The Nine Dots folk are offering a $100K payout because they're looking for a book in return, so in addition to the 3,000 words you will be needing to produce an outline of the book, and some kind of document indicating that you would be capable of completing the book in within seven months of being selected. Their aim is to have the book in print by a 2020 deadline.

Actually, though, they are not really looking for just any book. They are seeking an idea big enough to be worthy of the prize, which will be expanded on for the length of a short book. Not an epic, just something powerful that addresses a contemporary issue... Do you have something inside you that you believe big enough to change the world?

In short, HERE ARE THE THREE DOCUMENTS YOU NEED TO PRODUCE:

1.
Summary
A summary response to the set question, which must be no more than 3,000 words in length. Should you win the Prize, you will be required to develop this summary into a short book of between 25,000 and 40,000 words. The summary should cover the main ideas and arguments your proposed book will make, the evidence and research on which it draws and the key conclusions it will reach.

2.
Outline
An outline structure of this short book, including provisional chapter headings. This can be up to 1,000 words and will show how you see your response expanding into a complete book and how you would develop your arguments, should you be successful. It is an opportunity to prove that there is enough depth to your arguments to provide content for an entire book.

3.
Justification
A justification statement of your ability to complete the book in the time given (approx. seven months). This can be up to 1,000 words, and will outline your previous experience in communicating effectively about evidence, research and ideas, and a commitment from you that your responsibilities will allow the book to be completed in the seven month period.

DEADLINE: Entrants must submit their 3,000-word response, an outline structure for their proposed book and a justification statement of their ability to complete the book in seven months via an online submission form.

* * * *
Over the years I've thought a lot about the notion of "home" and why this longing for home has such power for many. Here are a few blog posts I have written about it.

Reflections on the Meaning of Home
An Easter Reflection on Gardens in the Bible
Thoughts about being banished from Eden and our longing for a Promised Land

Here's the Home Page for The Nine Dots Prize: https://ninedotsprize.org/ 

IS THERE STILL NO PLACE LIKE HOME?

Reflections on the Meaning of Home

"Homeward bound, I wish I were..." ~Paul Simon

"There's no place like home." "Home is where the heart is." The theme is well documented in literature, from a range of angles, from Greek literature to modern classics. In fact, home as a concept seems so common that the idea of a book of poetry about home feels almost mundane.

Nevertheless, Jim Perlman, Mara Hart, Pamela Mittlefehldt and Duluth poet laureate Deborah Cooper have poured themselves into assembling just such a book called The Heart of All That Is: Reflections on Home. (Holy Cow! Press, 2013)

The poets in this collection hail from points north, south, east and west. And their efforts to reflect the meaning of home are likewise from all perspectives and points of view.

The poems and short narrative pieces have been arranged in six sections that help induce thematic harmonies. The first set of poems are reflections on "The Amber Wilds of Childhood." Next we have the "Folded Maps of the Past" with sixteen poems about being away from home, leaving home, coming back home.

The third section is called Living a Second Time in Memory: Looking Back at Home. This is followed by a set of poems on the theme of Seeking Shelter: Without a Place to Call Home which begins with a painful by Ethna McKiernan called "Dear God of H____" The title makes you wonder whether it will be about the God of Heaven or God of Hell. But by tale's end it is the God of Homelessness. Another piece in this section is called A Shelter Is Not a Home, by Linda Kantner who says with seeming understanding, "It's a place to go when there is no place else."

The fifth section is called "Where Rain Returns: Claiming Home." It ends with an Ellie Schoenfield poem titled "Patriotism' that in her typical style takes a word or subject which we commonly understand in one way and re-invents its application. The summing up is a fresh take on both patriotism and Martin Luther's Reformation:
I stand my ground on this ground,
this ground which will
ultimately 
recruit us all
to its side.

The book's last section -- The Contours of Private Geography -- gets into the more complicated meanings of home, though much of the book has already been unearthing many of these thoughts and questions. What is home? How do we understand home? What is a home away from home?

In the essay Seeking Sanctuary we read, "What makes a home is the feeling of sanctuary. It is a place of respite from the world or an invitation for someone to join you, a place of intimacy with yourself and loved ones, a place that is designed to be a reflection of who you are, what you love, where you've been, and your hopes and dreams." Wendy Brown-Baez writes that she has come to realize that she has carried this idea of home to whatever new place she has landed, and by various gestures keeps a continuity with where she has been.

Each of as as travelers on life's road has had different experiences and understandings about the meaning of home. For those who relate well to poetry, there's plenty to take away from the poems and essays in this collection. And for those who get squeamish about reading poetry (perhaps due to a bit of bad teaching in high school) you may want to give it another chance as the themes are things we can all related to.

* * * *

This blog post is a replay of a 2013 post as a result of a visit East to be with my own family and the sense of "home" I'd received growing up, for which I am ever grateful. Life is complicated and has many challenges. Having a sanctuary where we can find safety and nourishment is needful. I have much to be grateful for.

Poets Reflect on the Meaning of Home in The Heart of All That Is

"Homeward bound, I wish I were..." ~Paul Simon

"There's no place like home." "Home is where the heart is." The theme is well documented in literature, from a range of angles, from Greek literature to modern classics. In fact, home as a concept seems so common that the idea of a book of poetry about home feels almost mundane.

Nevertheless, Jim Perlman, Mara Hart, Pamela Mittlefehldt and Duluth poet laureate Deborah Cooper have poured themselves into assembling just such a book called The Heart of All That Is: Reflections on Home. (Holy Cow! Press, 2013)

The poets in this collection hail from points north, south, east and west. And their efforts to reflect the meaning of home are likewise from all perspectives and points of view.

The poems and short narrative pieces have been arranged in six sections that help induce thematic harmonies. The first set of poems are reflections on "The Amber Wilds of Childhood." Next we have the "Folded Maps of the Past" with sixteen poems about being away from home, leaving home, coming back home.

The third section is called Living a Second Time in Memory: Looking Back at Home. This is followed by a set of poems on the theme of Seeking Shelter: Without a Place to Call Home which begins with a painful by Ethna McKiernan called "Dear God of H____" The title makes you wonder whether it will be about the God of Heaven or God of Hell. But by tale's end it is the God of Homelessness. Another piece in this section is called A Shelter Is Not a Home, by Linda Kantner who says with seeming understanding, "It's a place to go when there is no place else."

The fifth section is called "Where Rain Returns: Claiming Home." It ends with an Ellie Schoenfield poem titled "Patriotism' that in her typical style takes a word or subject which we commonly understand in one way and re-invents its application. The summing up is a fresh take on both patriotism and Martin Luther's Reformation:
I stand my ground on this ground,
this ground which will
ultimately 
recruit us all
to its side.

The book's last section -- The Contours of Private Geography -- gets into the more complicated meanings of home, though much of the book has already been unearthing many of these thoughts and questions. What is home? How do we understand home? What is a home away from home?

In the essay Seeking Sanctuary we read, "What makes a home is the feeling of sanctuary. It is a place of respite from the world or an invitation for someone to join you, a place of intimacy with yourself and loved ones, a place that is designed to be a reflection of who you are, what you love, where you've been, and your hopes and dreams." Wendy Brown-Baez writes that she has come to realize that she has carried this idea of home to whatever new place she has landed, and by various gestures keeps a continuity with where she has been.

Each of as as travelers on life's road has had different experiences and understandings about the meaning of home. For those who relate well to poetry, there's plenty to take away from the poems and essays in this collection. And for those who get squeamish about reading poetry (perhaps due to a bit of bad teaching in high school) you may want to give it another chance as the themes are things we can all related to.