Are you a creative thinker, passionate about action in the climate crisis, or looking to put yourself out there and be a part of an exciting YSJU community project?

Why not submit your poems and stories to Writing Resilience! Submissions are Open until the 30th March!

This Spring, the Living Lab is launching a brand-new creative writing anthology of works created by our very own YSJ student body linking to our resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

About The Living Lab:

The Living Lab is a network of staff and students at YSJ that explores local ecological justice issues. Through interdisciplinary collaboration across schools, the Living Lab can contribute towards a more just and sustainable future and strengthen our community’s resilience in a changing climate.

About The Anthology:

This Spring, the Living Lab will be curating a creative writing anthology to showcase the diverse voices and stories across York St John University in relation to the Living Lab’s thematic focus of ‘Resilience in a Changing Climate.’

Our mission with Writing Resilience is:

• To support and encourage voices and stories of resilience.
• To highlight the strength of our community – it’s important to remember that strength isn’t just about optimism, it’s also about confronting uncertainty, loss, and the challenges of change.
• To raise awareness of the climate crisis.
• To demonstrate the power that creative expression has in mindfulness and charging us with perseverance and compassion.

Through the anthology, we can unify voices, raise awareness, and reflect on what resilience means in our evolving world.

Writers of all backgrounds and experience levels are invited to take part. Whether you’re picking up a pen for the first time or refining your craft and broadening your portfolio, we encourage you to share your voice.

However resilience speaks to you – through poetry, storytelling, or reflection – we want to hear it.

Prompts and Inspiration:

The theme of Writing Resilience could include, but is not limited to considering:

• An object or place that has changed or is changing
• How an area recovers after climate hazards, i.e. floods, droughts, wildfires
• The relationship and interactions between humans, wildlife and technology
• The importance or meaning of making positive ecological contributions in times of uncertainty
• The regeneration of hope
• The versions of our planet’s future that could exist

You are more than welcome to explore this theme as broadly and creatively as you wish. We are accepting work across all genres.

Category Specifications:

SHORT STORIES:

• Short story submissions should not exceed 1,250 words. Please only include one short story per submission.

FLASH FICTION:

• Flash fiction should not exceed 500 words per piece. You may submit up to three pieces of flash fiction in a submission.

POETRY:

• Poetry submissions should not exceed 50 lines. Authors may submit as many poems as they wish under this line count – e.g. 20, 20, 10.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION:

• Creative non-fiction – which may be memoirs, essays, or another form, must not exceed 1,000 words. Please only include one piece of creative non-fiction per submission.

Submission Guidelines:

All submissions must be your own work. If we have reason to believe your work is plagiarised or AI generated, then we will not be able to accept it.

All submissions must not be under consideration or published elsewhere, including self-published works.

You may send in a maximum of two submissions, although each separate submission must only contain writing for one category.

• These separate submissions can be written for the same category, or two different categories (e.g., submission A is poetry, submission B is a short story).
• Each submission must consist of work for one category only (e.g. submission A must only be poetry).
• We will print up to two pieces of work from the total submissions you send in (e.g. one of the poems, and the short story).
• Please ensure that your poems and all pieces of work can stand alone as individual pieces and narratives for this reason.

Submissions must be sent in at the same time in an email to writingresiliencelivinglab@gmail.com with the subject line: ‘Writing Resilience Submission(s) – [category: poetry] (and if required) [category B: short story], Your Name’.

• We would also love a short bio of one or two sentences about you in third person and welcome you to include your pronouns. The bio mustn’t exceed 40 words.
• This is encouraged, but not mandatory if you wish to remain anonymous. Please further specify in the subject line if you wish to remain anonymous.

Please Note: As this is the first creative writing review from the Living Lab, we may need to make some adjustments along the way. We strive to print as many submissions as possible, but depending on the volume of submissions we receive, and in specific circumstances, we may need to make cuts or alterations: if any changes need to be made to your work, we will communicate with participants to ensure transparency and collaboration.

We will not accept anything that condones or glamourises problematic behaviour or includes hate speech.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE on the 30^th MARCH 2025 at 23:59 GMT. We are unable to consider work after this point.