The Elphinstone Institute is seeking submissions for an anthology of new Doric/North-East Scots writing, suitable for S1 students and upwards.
We are looking for fresh, engaging, contemporary poetry, short stories, flash fiction and short plays from new and established writers. There is no specific theme, but work should focus on contemporary issues and/or be of relevance to the lives of secondary school age pupils.
This project is a collaboration between writer Jo Gilbert and The Friends of Elphinstone, Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen and funded by Creative Funding. Through conversations with teachers and others working in and around Scots, a lack of new work suitable for older students in Doric was identified, sparking the idea for an anthology of new writing.
The two main goals of the project are to create paid opportunities for new and established writers and create a companion pamphlet to accompany the anthology comprising of questions and activities that secondary schools and teachers can use in their Scots language work.
Send us your short stories, poems, flash fiction and short plays - all work must be previously unpublished (including social media and own websites) and the criteria for submissions are as follows:
- Poems: Up to 3 poems, totalling no more than 120 lines or 40 lines per poem
- Short stories: 1 or 2 short stories, each no more than 2000 words
- Flash fiction: Up to 3 pieces, no more than 500 words each
- Plays: Short 2 or 3 hander plays no longer than 10-15 minutes or 2500 words
Put your name, address, short bio (30 words max), and contact details on the cover page of your submission. Send in a word document in Arial or Times New Roman font, size 12pt. If you are sending more than one poem, please include them all in the same submission.
Put your name in the header of each page and save your submissions as a word document (no PDFs or other formats) with the filename as Your Name_Poetry or Your Name_Plays or the category you wish to submit in – short stories/flash fiction. Email all submissions by the deadline 5pm on Friday 2nd December to jogilbertwriter@gmail.com We cannot accept postal submissions.
You can submit work in more than one category and each contributor who has work accepted will receive £50 per piece, regardless of category. It is unlikely that we will accept more than 2 submissions from any one writer. Successful contributors will also receive a copy of the anthology and an invite to the launch, which we are looking to hold in late February/early March 2023.