We are excited to announce the launch of our third and final round of Beyond Writing competition series! We’d also like to thank everyone who submitted pieces for the previous rounds on Inspirational Women and Creative Peace, some truly thoughtful writing!

The theme for this round is: Beyond Borders

We are looking for submissions about the way in which borders, both literal and figurative, interact and exist.

A broad range of non-fiction and fiction writing is encouraged, including plays, story-telling and poetry, as well as, art pieces and photojournalism with a commentary. This round is also a fantastic opportunity for more journalistic or academic approaches to writing, as borders play a very significant role in current affairs and international relations.

As this concept is quite abstract, we have included a list of potential topics for inspiration:

• Identity politics
• People who have united groups with divergent identities, across race, ethnicity, gender, etc
• Growing up or living in a different country from your family and friends
• Globalisation, including the European Union, the United Nations, World Trade Organisation
• The internet as borderless
• Climate change
• Intersectionality
• Refugee flows across borders
• Statelessness
• The Scottish Borders (where the Beyond Borders International Festival is held annually!)
• Border creation during the colonial period
• Trumps Border Wall or the Great Wall of China

Prizes

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.

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.

Submission details

Entries should be 1,000 words or less, written in English and submitted by midnight (GMT) 19th of July. Please ensure ‘Beyond Writing Beyond Borders’ 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 Brigette Hayes at info@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.