Write Your Story
Presented by the Leopold Writing Program in partnership with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival
As the literary landscape expands and grows in New Mexico, there is one natural motion to nurture this vibrant ecosystem: connection. In spring of 2025, the Leopold Writing Program and the Santa Fe International Literary Festival came together to see how our literary endeavors could bolster and uplift one another.
At the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May, we collaboratively premiered Write Your Story, a writing prompt activity designed to engage festival attendees to share their thoughts through the written and spoken word. As attendees waiting in line to see each festival writer, they were texted a quote by the respected writer with an accompanying writing prompt. Modeled after the Leopold Writing Contest, Write Your Story invited attendees to reflect on the quotes and then share their thoughts with other festival guests or enter them on a submission portal on our website. The prompts grounded readers in place and environment, offering them the opportunity to deeply contemplate each writer’s words.
Our hope was for the activity to remind everyone attending the Festival that the literary arts and creativity are for everyone while also encouraging a dialogue about the human-nature relationship. We received 45 beautiful entries, which have been compiled into this digital booklet of essays, short stories and poems. We invite you to enjoy the responses from these prompts, from writers you may know!
Click below to access the Write Your Story booklet
LEOPOLD WRITING CONTEST
The Write Your Story activity was modeled after the Leopold Writing Contest, which invites New Mexican students to respond to environmental-themed writing quotes and prompts.
Scroll to the bottom of this page or click below to learn more about this year's Leopold Writing Contest.
