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 Entries must be in English and unpublished. 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.
Find out more about us, our judges, sponsors and how to contact us.
How to Enter
What’s on right now?
We have a range of competitions running across various formats such as short stories, novels or even videos, each with its own themes and requirements.
Check out our upcoming competitions page for the latest competitions.
Full guidelines and details of how we judge the Green Stories Writing Competitions on the competition page.
We are constantly running new competitions across various writing formats. Sign up to our mailing list to be one of the first to find out when a new competition is open.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to stay in the loop.
Entry Guidelines
Our competitions have two key priorities: your storytelling ability and they must 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.
Testimonials from Previous Winners and Finalists
It is a great honour to be selected as a winner in the under 18s Green Stories Writing Competition. Actually, it is my very first time ever going in a writing competition, and I did not even expect to be winning this. I really thank the judges that they’ve appreciated my writing. Before I went into this competition, I used to write short stories just for myself, with no purpose to enter a competition. But I think this experience helped me to increase my confidence of my writing, and I will now try to write much better. Thank you once again for choosing my story.
Ryan Lee, aged 12
“I love seeing the imaginative way that writers conjure up and determine a green theme. The planet needs all the help it can get at the moment and if any story makes people think twice about climate change or the environment then it has done well. It is so hard not to be ‘preachy’ about these matters.”
Alyson Hilbourne (short story runner up).
“Winning the Green Stories Writing Competition gave me the boost in confidence I needed to begin my career as a writer. The inspirational nature of the competition was great to spark ideas, and I now hope to complete a collection of short stories inspired by my entry. If you’re a writer, I highly recommended submitting to the Green Stories Competition. And if you’re a reader who enjoys glimpses of beautiful possible futures, make sure to read the stories and novels. They’re well worth it.“
Ana Reisens
“I was delighted to win the Green Stories competition last year. Part of the prize was a series of meetings with agent Peter Cox who gave me lots of great advice on my writing and led me to join Litopia, an on-line writing colony of which I am now an active participant, meeting other writers weekly in the huddle where we critique work, provide feedback and generally support each other. I hope the competition goes well this year!”
Terry Lowell
“Being selected as a finalist in the Green Stories Writing Competition was very exciting and inspired me to convert my film script into a literary text for young readers. It gave me reason to keep pursuing my story. I am excited to soon be releasing my first book! Thank you Denise and the Green Stories Writing Competition Team.”
Judith Stutchbury, Australia
I really loved the competition! It was a wonderful opportunity! There need to be more writing competitions focused on promoting green themes.
Sophie Overton, First Prize Winner for TV screenplay with ‘Planet Pals’
Thanks again for running the competitions! They’ve been great fun. Dr Baden has done a heroic job of setting up the competitions, organising courses, a prize-giving ceremony and supportive media. The competitions have also been an excellent way to encourage climate change and environmental writing. I’d also like to say that the fact the competitions are free-to-enter is a big bonus. A lot of writing competitions, nowadays, seem to focus on making a profit using a steep entrant’s fee, without caring too much about the support of the winning work. A free-to-enter competition sends the message that its organisers want to find good work and promote it, rather than just gathering in the cheques.
Adrian Ellis
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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We’re part of ALLi (The Alliance of Independent Authors)
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We’re recommended by Reedsy as one of the best writing contests of 2022
Crafting beautiful books is at the heart of everything that Reedsy does. They’re changing the way books are published by giving authors and publishers access to talented professionals, powerful tools, and free educational content. Reedsy was founded in the summer of 2014 by Emmanuel Nataf, Ricardo Fayet, Vincent Durand and Matt Cobb. Since then, we’ve proudly built a community of over 1 million authors and 2,500 freelance professionals — helping them bring more than 15,000 books to market each year.
