Green Stories writing competitions are a series of free writing competitions across various formats to solicit stories that showcase what a sustainable society might look like. Open to all. Entries must be in English and unpublished. The competitions are organised by the University of Southampton. Our mission is to create a cultural body of work that entertains and informs about green solutions, inspires green behaviour and raises awareness of the necessary transformations towards a sustainable economy.
How to Enter
Our Radio Play/Series Competition is currently open with the deadline in August 2021.
Choose one of three categories
- 45 minute drama
- 6 x 30 minute series: send sample/pilot episode + 3 pages outlining remaining episodes (these should be ready as we will ask for them if shortlisted).
- 5 x 15 minute series: send the first two 15 minutes episodes and an outline of the further 3 episodes (these should be ready as we will ask for them if shortlisted).
This competition is open to all and we strongly encourage you to get involved. BBC Writers Room have agreed to look at the top five scripts and follow up with any writers they find promising. As well as this, Whistledown Productions produce programmes for radio and have agreed to look at the top entries.
Full guidelines and details on the competition page.
Other Competitions
We are also running our Adult Novel Competition with the deadline in December 2021. Find out the full details here.
Entry Guidelines
Our competitions have two key priorities: your storytelling ability and incorporate green solutions.
We ask writers to check out transformative solutions and integrate them into their stories. The story doesn’t have to be about sustainability or climate change directly. A rom-com, for example, could be set in a society that replaces ownership with borrowing and the heroine goes to a clothes library to pick up a posh dress and borrow jewellery for her big date; or the hero in a crime drama could use a carbon credit card and hear the news in the background reporting on the well-being index instead of GDP; or a family drama could be set in a society where people have gardens on their roofs, use green technologies, eat insect burgers and generate energy from their own waste, and so on. We are eager to read what your imaginations can come with!
You can view the full competition guidelines on our website.
Ideas and resources for your green stories
Just as some books/films product place products, we aim to ‘product place’ sustainable attitudes behaviours products and policies. The story doesn’t have to be specifically about climate change or catastrophic shortages, it can be any kind of genre – rom-com, crime drama, legal drama, children’s book, sci-fi etc. as long as it showcases sustainable technologies, practices, products or ideas in the background. Be creative and engaging with your writing.
You might choose to incorporate some of the following topics into your story – be creative this list isn’t extensive – you can include anything as long as it showcases sustainable behaviour. For a full list of story ideas visit our resources page.
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