Announcing CBE’s 2025 Writing Contest—Celebrating Creativity

Are you interested in women’s biblical equality and mutuality? Do you want to share your creative writing? If so, CBE’s ninth annual writing contest is an excellent place to begin! We want you—women and men of all cultures, countries, and backgrounds—to share your insights with our readership and with the world. 

Entries will be accepted May 23–July 20. Results will be announced in September 2025.

CBE aims to be a prophetic, irenic, and empathetic voice in the church, recognizing that various forms of writing reach a wide and global audience Even Scripture utilizes parables, narratives, poetry, and letters. So this year, CBE invites writers to submit a variety of genres as we celebrate the creativity of God and the written word. Authors are invited to write to one or more of the categories described below.

What Should I Write About?

At its core, your writing contest entry should align with CBE’s Mission and Core Values and engage with CBE’s mission to promote the full equality of women and men as co-leaders in the home, church, and world. This year, we are celebrating how many genres of writing can explore, explain, and advance the cause of women’s biblical equality. Please write for one (or more!) of the following categories:

1. A sermon or devotional that expounds on mutuality.
2. Poetry or original song lyrics that explores mutuality, womanhood, feminism in a Christian context, or the intersection of gender and race.
3. Fictionalized vignettes¹ on Bible women and women in Church history, art, and archaeology.  
4. Scene-length screenplays, stage plays, or scripts that portray CBE’s mission. 
5. Commentary on a movie, book, or other aspect of popular culture (either Christian or secular) through a mutualist lens. 
6. A unique theological exploration of women in the Old Testament or New Testament.

Have something important to say, but feel it doesn’t fit into any of the above categories? Please submit it anyway! We’ll still consider it for publication.

Need inspiration? 

Be sure to check out Mutuality’s Autumn 2011 publication, Creative Writing. You can also browse our archives or read articles that have won in previous years’ writing contests:

• The 2024 CBE Writing Contest Winners Are Here!
• 2023 Writing Contest winners and honorable mentions
• 2022 Writing Contest winners and honorable mentions
• 2021 Writing Contest winners and honorable mentions
• 2020 Writing Contest winners and honorable mentions
• 2019 Writing Contest winners
• 2018 Writing Contest winners and honorable mentions
• 2017 Writing Contest winners

Winning and honorable mention articles may also be submitted as entries in the Higher Goals contest by the Evangelical Press Association (EPA). Browse Mutuality articles that have received an EPA award.

What Could I Win? 

Each of the six categories will have one designated Grand Prize Winner. This person’s article will be published with CBE, either in the Mutuality blog or magazine. Grand Prize Winners will also receive a free e-book of their choice from a list of works published by CBE and a year-long print subscription to CBE’s award-winning magazine, Mutuality. 

We may also designate honorable mentions, based on the number of submissions we receive. Winning and honorable mention articles may also be submitted as entries in the Higher Goals contest by EPA.

All writing contest entries will be considered for publication by CBE. So even if your piece is not selected as a winner, we may still want to get it out there!

How Do I Enter the 2025 CBE Writing Contest?

To enter, please email your writing contest entry to mutuality@cbeinternational.org by July 20, 2025.

1. Attach your entry as a Microsoft Word document, single-spaced.
2. Include your full name, an author biography (fifty words or fewer), a two- to three-sentence article description, and a high-quality headshot.
3. Provide the total word count of your submission (not including the title). Your entry must be between 700 and 1,500 words.
4. Please specify which category(ies) you are writing for.
5. Title your entry document using this format: LastName_2025-WC-Entry.

All entries must honor CBE’s core values and CBE’s mission: CBE exists to promote the biblical message that God calls women and men of all cultures, races, and classes to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, church, and world. CBE’s mission is to eliminate the power imbalance between men and women resulting from theological patriarchy. 

Additional Rules

• All writing contest entries must be original content not yet published elsewhere, unless you host a personal blog that has a small audience. (You must indicate if this is the case.) AI-generated content will not be accepted.
• Late entries will not be accepted for the contest but may still be considered for publication.
• All entries should have correct spelling, grammar, and Chicago notes-style citation for any outside sources. All historical or theological claims should be cited.
• You may submit more than one entry for consideration. CBE may publish multiple entries from the same author, but no more than one entry per author will be recognized as a winner or honorable mention.
• You agree to participate in the editing process with CBE’s editorial team. Changes made or requested by the editorial team will be sent to you, the author, for comment and approval before publication. Titles may be changed.

Review the Mutuality writer’s guidelines for more information. Feel free to send any questions to mutuality@cbeinternational.org. 

Please Help Us Share!

We would love you to tell others about the 2025 CBE Writing Contest! Feel free to use the graphic below or contact mutuality@cbeinternational.org for more information.

^[1] A very short story of approximately 1,000 words—perfect for the 700–1,500-word limit.