EMPOWERED TRANS WOMAN: WRITING CHALLENGE
One object, one essay: Empowered Trans Woman’s first open writing challenge. Entries through September 14.
Every one of us owns an object that knows the whole story. The first pair of heels bought in daylight instead of ordered in a plain brown box. The prescription bottle with the pharmacy label peeled half off. The name-change paperwork in its manila envelope. The dress that hung in the back of a closet for nine years before it finally got a Tuesday.
Empowered Trans Woman is opening its first community writing challenge, and the prompt is that object. Pick the one thing you kept, hid, bought, buried, borrowed, or wore, and write the essay that goes with it. One object, one essay. Let the object carry the weight.
What I’m looking for
Personal essays and true perspective pieces, centered on trans women’s lives and open to the whole community when your object speaks to who we are. I want concrete over abstract: the heft of the thing in your hand, the store where you bought it, who watched you carry it home. You don’t owe anyone a happy ending. If the object is complicated, write it complicated. The binder you threw away belongs here as much as the heels you kept.
The guidelines
Nonfiction and personal essay only for this round. Fiction writers, hold on; that door gets its own decision soon.
Aim for 600 to 1,500 words. That’s guidance, not a gate. A piece that needs 400 words or 2,000 can earn its length.
Human-written prose only. Medium bars AI-written work from distribution, and this publication does the same. Write it yourself. It’ll sound like you, and that’s the point.
One entry per writer.
How to enter
If I’ve already approved you as a writer, click on submit to publication and select Empowered Trans Woman under the “Contributing” tab.
If you’re not yet approved as a writer, write your essay, click on submit to publication, and select Empowered Trans Woman under the “Following”
If you can’t figure that one out. Write your essay, leave the draft link in a response to this post. That response is your entry. I’ll contact you to publish it.
Entries close Monday, September 14, 2026. I’ll read every one, and most will get approved and published. After September 14th, I will pick three stories that moved me, pin them to the top of our page for four weeks, and mark them as featured in the publication.
Why now
This is Empowered Trans Woman’s first challenge under my editorship. Cassie Brighter built this publication and the community around it, and she died this spring. A writing prompt doesn’t settle a loss like that, and I won’t pretend it does. What I can do is keep the lights on and fill these pages with the writing she made room for. Consider this challenge dedicated to her.
So go find the thing. Turn it over in your hands once. Then write.
A few names I am hoping will write for this challenge:
Blue, M M, Emily, Anna Langley, Anna Schell, Rebecca Juely, Constance Rowan, Dana Pham CPHR (pronouns: who/cares), Candace Dane Chambers, Fiona Evangeline Leigh
Florence Ashley, Ivett Ördög, Kamille Romero, Katelyn Burns, Kathryn Foss, Diana Eden, Dawn Ennis, Lisa Salazar, Mariebobosmith, Marie Landry Spy Shop
Martie Sirois, Quintessence of Dust, Nanette Jordan, Gemma Stone, Phaylen Fairchild, Rachel Brindell, Rori Porter, Taryn De Vere, Theresa Jean Tanenbaum, Rachel Anne Williams
Clara Dolderman, Patsy Starke, Kira Ry, Katlynn Alexandria, Sarah Scorze, The Land Of Green Ginger, Emma Holiday, Amber Poe, Otsokai Ko, Christina Harris, ElizaBeth, Christine Penn, Joanna Mills, Katlynn Alexandria, Stephanie Donnell
Grace Ann Hansen is an independent researcher and writer, and an MBA & PhD graduate student in health informatics and artificial intelligence. She is also a published author, a professional musician, a gymnastics coach, and a queer transgender woman living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All interpretation, argument, and prose are her own. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Grace Ann Hansen at grace@graceannhansen.com.