Everyday, ordinary people are making decisions to fortify their livelihood and personal values against the possible negative impacts of climate change – The family making an emergency kit with essential supplies for an upcoming extreme weather event; the teen lobbying for an idling truck policy to limit poor air quality days; the employee participating in an earthquake drill. What does climate resilience look like in everyday life? The Holy Cross Libraries and the Office of Sustainability invite you to submit a short non-fiction story to the 2021 Climate Resilient Everyday Short Story Contest. Let’s explore how everyday people are demonstrating climate resilience and let’s amplify those voices.
Eligibility
All College of the Holy Cross students, alumni, faculty, and staff as well as anyone holding a Holy Cross Libraries card are eligible to participate.
Need a library card? Library cards are generally issued at the discretion of the supervisor on-duty, primarily to Worcester area clergy, Nativity School teachers, other Worcester-area school teachers, members of the Worcester Institute for Senior Education, and members of the American Guild of Organists. The HC Libraries’ ability to issue new cards may be limited due to COVID restrictions. Learn more about library access.
- Short stories must be non-fiction and somehow answer the question, what does climate resilience look like in everyday life? Personal stories or stories about others are accepted.
- Participants must complete the digital submission form and may only submit one story. No paper entries will be accepted.
- Stories must be original and previously unpublished, including online blogs. Stories used for course or work assignments may be submitted as long as they were not published elsewhere.
- Please submit non-fiction stories with 1,500 words or less, in Times New Roman font size 12 and one-inch margins. Single, 1.5, or double spacing are all accepted. The title of the story should be in the header of each page, and stories must be written in English.
Notification of the Winner
The winner will be notified by Holy Cross’ director of sustainability by mid-March. All contestants will be notified shortly thereafter, via the email address provided during submission.
Award
The winning story will get added to CrossWorks, Holy Cross’ open access institutional repository. In addition, the contest winner will receive $250 and an announcement on the Libraries’ Newsfeed.
The Climate Resilient Everyday Short Story Contest is financially supported by a grant from the Resilient Communities program within the American Library Association.
Submission Due Date: February 24, 2021
