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Storybird Challenges is a writing competition to inspire and uncover visual storytellers.

We began Challenges late last year and have, with the help of our community, discovered and celebrated smart, funny, and ingenious stories for all ages.

Last month we expanded our writer's pool throughout the Commonwealth: Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand have been added. If you're over 18, a resident of one of these great countries, and think you can turn art into intriguing prose—you're invited to play.

These next rounds of Challenges also signals our interest in discovering talent for the Storybird Shop, which will feature and sell hand-picked stories and artwork from the Storybird commons. If you can make it past the votes of hundreds of thousands of picky kids, tweens, and teens—you may have a commercial outlet for your creative skills.

To help pick March's finalists, we've invited Lani Diane Rich and Alastair Stephens to the party. Lani is a New York Times bestselling author whom we also adore for her feisty Popcorn Dialogues podcasts with Jenny Crusie. And Alastair is Lani's partner at StoryWonk, an online writers' bootcamp that offers podcasts and online classes, seminars, and workshops for writers.

This month's theme is "freedom." So, if you want to sing out, sing out. And if you want to be free, be free. 'Cause there's a million things to be, you know that there are...