2025 The Mortals BASIS China Network Writing Contest
"The Mortals is more than a publication; it is a literary project." Towards this end, we are launching our fifth annual writing contest. We invite every member of the BASIS China community to think aloud, to spread their voice. Endorsed by the network's Head of English Department, we are honored to have faculty members alongside our editors on the judging panel. Our judges will keep their minds open to experimental styles and provocative arguments, for, "at The Mortals, we believe that great writing starts with bold writing."​
Argumentative Writing
Prompts
1. Is there such a thing as too much joy?
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2. Are BASIS students privileged? If so, are we rightfully privileged?
3. Can we justify liberty without defending inequality?
4. If unfinished schoolwork can become homework, why can’t unfinished chores become classwork?
“The problem with the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent.”
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---E. E. Schattschneider
Journalistic Writing
Prompts
1. Write about an individual in the BASIS community who has sparked meaningful change.
2. Type I error represents the significance level. Type 2 diabetes often reflects lifestyle. Type III survivorship curves characterize certain species. Type C charging is a universal standard. Type O- blood is a universal donor. Forget romance; in the taxonomy of life, what’s your type?
3. How has someone you know contributed meaningfully to the development of a school community committed to knowledge, integrity, and humanity (the BASIS motto)?​
“What is in me is stronger than I am.”
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---Albert Camus
Creative Writing
Prompts
1. Write about an individual in the BASIS community who has sparked meaningful change.
Apples or pies?
2. Phoenixes have infinite lives. Cats have nine lives. Radioactive elements have half-lives. Ghosts have after-lives. Who, if ever, truly dies?
3. Write about one of the following:​
a) Your future
b) Our future
c) The future
d) A future​​
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”
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---John Cage
Poetry/Prose Poetry
Prompts
1. Think about “it.”
2. When I say I wrote the sky…
3. Write about something rising up, remaking itself (e.g. sunrise).
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“The sunset gleams in endless delight; / Alas, soon it yields to night.”
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---Li Shangyin (translation by editor)