Writing Possible, Protopian Worlds: An NYC Futuring & Writing Workshop (in partnership with Girls Write Now)
We spend a lot of time talking about the future. Less time actually imagining it, and almost no time deliberating on how to get there.
This evening is for curious people who want to do all three. We'll move through individual world-building, collective futuring, and an introduction to the systems — governance, tech, infrastructure — that make new futures possible. (They're less boring than they sound, we promise.)
Come ready to imagine with technologists, futurists, writers and your fellow humans. Leave with a story that's yours to keep — or submit to The Protopian Prize, a fiction contest hosted by Metagov and The Public AI Network.
Workshop Facilitators:
Val Elefante (she/they) is an independent technology researcher & writer, and the Protopian Prize Project Lead at Metagov.
irawo ajasin (they/them) is a designer, technologist, educator, and research-based artist.
Ashna Shah (she/her) is a media strategist, futurist, and mentor with Girls Write Now.
About The Protopian Prize
The Protopian Prize is a short story fiction contest inviting storytellers, dreamers, and writers to share their visions of people working toward liberatory futures, meeting obstacles, and making real change. The contest is open until July 31st. Submissions can be 500-6,000 words. Winners win $5K and publication in an anthology published by MIT Press. Learn more at protopianprize.com.
"Protopian”—a word coined by Kevin Kelly, one of our contest's judges—means an achievable, optimistic future characterized by continuous, incremental progress rather than revolutionary leaps or a static, perfect state. Protopian stories imagine a future that is neither flawless nor catastrophic, but instead workably better than today. It’s about plausible progress rather than perfection or collapse.
The 2026 prize has 2 categories:
1) The Public AI Prize category invites writers to imagine AI development, policy, and tools, built for—and following basic principles of— public benefit. Stories might address ethical training, sustainable maintenance, creator-friendly implementation, collective rather than corporate ownership, and/or new uses that complement rather than replace human strengths. Judges for the Public AI Prize include Gideon Lichfield, Kevin Kelly, Arati Prabhakar, Deji Bryce Olukotun, and Hannu Rajaniemi.
2) The Democratic Futures Prize category invites us to imagine institutions, tools, and organizational methods that expand and enhance public autonomy and shared control over societal futures. Stories might address inclusive community-building, decision-making processes, better delivery of public goods, and/or new techniques for combating disinformation, surveillance, and authoritarian constraints. Judges for the Democratic Futures prize include Ruthanna Emrys Gordon, Karl Schroeder, Annalee Newitz, Ida Yoshinaga, and Henry Farrell.
This prize is sponsored by The Center for Cultural Innovation, Flower Hill Fund at the Boston Foundation, The Grant Innovation Lab at Metagov, Democracy Notes, and the BLOOM Project. Our partners include: Locus Magazine, Girls Write Now, Talk to the City, Democracy 2076, Clive Rd, and Folk Tech.
If you have any questions, please contact Val at [email protected] (Project Lead).