Beyond Writing Competition Round II: Creative Peace

**DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JUNE 14TH, 2019**

Beyond Borders Scotland is excited to announce the launch of our second round of Beyond Writing competition series! We’d also like to thank everyone who submitted pieces for our previous round on Inspirational Women, some truly inspirational writing!

The theme for this round is: Creative Peace

We are looking for submissions about creative ways to resolve conflict or build peace. This may be a poem or short story featuring a dynamic leading figure in peace activism or non-violent movements, or a unique personal story of conflict and resolution. Alternatively, we are also interest to read reports or journalism inspired by community peacebuilding or non-violent activism, academic essays on dynamic peace processes throughout history, or anything else inspired by the theme Creative Peace!

As the theme Creative Peace is quite broad, we have included a few ideas about how this could be interpreted:

• • Civil rights movement in the USA and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955
  • Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Movement
  • Role of graffiti and public art in conflict and peace i.e. ‘Never Forget Srebrenica’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sudanese art collective during the revolutionary sit-in 2019
  • Storytelling and fact finding through photojournalism
  • Eurovision as a tool for unity
  • The role of conscientious objectors in war time
  • Art and music as therapy in post-conflict societies, or as expression of feelings about conflict
  • Mahatma Ghandi and non-resistance movements
  • The League of Nations and the development of the United Nations as a peace mechanism
  • The Nobel Peace Prize
  • Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the Women’s Coalition
  • Cynthia Cohen: Why, in rebuilding war-torn communities, should precious and scarce resources b invested in the arts and cultural programs?
  • Rebuilding family relationships

A broad range of non-fiction and fiction writing is encouraged, including feature journalism and academic writing, plays, story-telling and poetry, as well as, art pieces and photojournalism with a commentary.

The prize for the winner is two full weekend tickets to Beyond Borders International Festival 2019, where, alongside the other finalists, they’ll be led in a tailored creative writing workshop with acclaimed author and journalist, Jean Rafferty from Dove Tales! Shortlisted finalists will also be invited to join the workshop, and will receive tickets to our Walled Garden Arts and Music programme at the Festival, full of exhibitions, storytelling, workshops and more!

Finally, the winners of each competition round, Inspirational Women, Creative Peace and our final round, Beyond Borders, will be able to meet, and receive feedback on their writing from one of our headline writers at this year’s festival. The line-up is yet to be announced, but previous festivals have welcomed internationally acclaimed authors such as Aminatta Forna, Rachel Cusk and William Dalrymple, as well as veteran journalists Tina Brown, Paul Conroy, Razia Iqbal, Allan Little, Lyse Doucet and Jim Naughtie.

Entries should be 1,000 words or less, written in English and submitted by midnight (GMT) 14th of June. Please ensure ‘Beyond Writing Creative Peace’ is included in the subject line of your email and that your name and email address are only included in the email, and not the submission document! Submissions should be sent to info@beyondbordersscotland.com. Good luck!

Please note that travel and accommodation costs for prize winners attending the festival are not currently covered. Winners and shortlisted candidates unable to attend the Festival should reach out directly to our Development Officer Harriet Fildes, on hfildes@beyondbordersscotland.com to discuss other opportunities.

All shortlisted candidates will be invited to publish their work on Beyond Borders website, and will be promoted through our social media channels. Please get in touch if you do not wish to have your work published online or if you wish to find out more on future opportunities.