Being a writer is a lonely experience. Half the time you spend holed up, driving yourself crazy, working words into mush, wondering why you ever decided to do this to yourself, wondering if you’re any good or if anybody will ever care. The only thing that keeps you going is that there’s no other option: You need to tell a story.
Inspired by our 1997 i-D Creative Writing Competition, we decided to run it back, this time tapping some of the greatest writers out there as judges: Cat Marnell for the Non-fiction category, Chris Kraus for Fiction, Julio Torres for Experimental, and Jeremy O. Harris for Drama. Over 2,351 people sent in their work. We combed through plays, poems, verse, personal essays, odes, short stories, and novella snippets to find the best of the best, the future greats.
Thursday (10/15) at 11 a.m. EDT, we’re celebrating with a live reading by the authors themselves on i-D’s Substack! We won’t say anything else… The writing speaks for itself.
Non-Fiction: “Nightwatching” by Robert Vetter
Fiction: “Rules on Earth” by Isabelle Eastman
Drama: “Inheritance” by Soraya Dabdoub
Experimental: “Eight Reasons Why I Would be the Perfect Gay Guy for Donald Trump to Adopt” by Scott Anthony Herrera