1000 Words Heard 2021

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This competition is now closed. We will be announcing the winner and runners up by end of April 2021.

Thank you so much to everyone who's taken part and done something amazing. You've once again risen to the challenge and given not just your entry donation, but your invaluable and incalculable creative talents to this wonderful cause. Thank you.

And if you missed out this time: stay tuned! We'll be holding another writing competition soon.

Once again we're inviting entries from you wonderful creative geniuses. And once again the winner will have their story narrated by a professional voice actor.

Actually, we're talking about a professional screen actor. And you're almost certainly familiar with her iconic roles.

Katie Leung played Ravenclaw student Cho Chang in no less than five of the Harry Potter films. In addition she has featured in TV series across most of the top streaming platforms, including White Dragon, Chimerica, The Nest, and most recently alongside Hugh Laurie in the Amazon Prime series Roadkill.

We're thrilled that Katie will be our guest narrator for our latest charity writing competition, and we can't wait to hear the winning story brought to life by her inimitable talents. That story could be yours. 

If you’re a regular here you’ll know that our writing competitions don’t follow the usual formula. In our writing competitions we like to offer a prize that’s actually useful to you as a writer. Something that develops your author platform.

And once again, just by entering this particular writing competition, you’ll be helping some truly vulnerable people. We're raising money for the Scottish Refugee Council, and we need your writing skills.

Update: runners-up prizes added

We're thrilled that Katie is offering to narrate the winning story, and we're equally thrilled that we can now offer prizes to more of you.

Thanks to the nice people at City Academy, who have been running creative classes since 2006, we're now able to offer three runners-up prizes of a free City Academy online writing course. In addition to this, City Academy are giving away ten vouchers offering 50% off any of their online writing courses.

You can find details of City Academy's online writing courses here

As these are online courses, they will be running whatever restrictions are in place due to Covid 19.

What is the Scottish Refugee Council?

Like everything else here at BIBLIOPHONE, we believe publishing should be free.

But we'd like to do some good, and we hope you’d like to join us. That’s why entry to 1000 Words Heard for the Scottish Refugee Council will include a donation to charity. It’s only £6/$6/€6/AU$6/CAN$6 to enter and your donation will go to a truly worthy cause. At BIBLIOPHONE we won’t take a penny for the competition, and neither will our guest narrator.

 

 

 

The Scottish Refugee Council is an independent charity dedicated to supporting people in need of refugee protection.

The people they work with have fled horrific situations around the world and come from countries where conflict is rife and human rights abuses common.

When people arrive in Scotland, a new journey begins. The UK’s asylum system is tough and takes its toll on individuals and families. Settling into a foreign country and a whole new system can be disorientating and challenging.

"We are here for people at a difficult time in their lives." - the Scottish Refugee Council.

 

Through their direct services, the Scottish Refugee Council provides practical support, advice and a listening ear to help people rebuild their lives in a sustainable and meaningful way. They work with communities and community groups. And they speak out against an unjust asylum system and campaign for policy changes that make a positive difference to people’s lives.

 

“When we came to Scotland we were very lonely…our family wasn’t here. My goal was to study but I couldn’t study at that time. In a new country, you have to start everything from zero.” - Feroz, student, from Afghanistan

 

Their work to support people rebuilding their lives here unites them with a movement of people across Scotland and beyond who believe in the importance of solidarity with people forced to flee their homes.

They are proud to stand with people seeking protection and proud of the many way Scotland’s refugee communities have enriched its culture and society.

Here at BIBLIOPHONE, we are proud to stand with them too. You might not live in Scotland. And that's okay - hey, we're not based in Scotland either. But refugees come from all over the world, and wherever they end up, we all have a part to play in ensuring they have the best chance to make a life for themselves. And while we’re all impacted by COVID-19, there are vulnerable people in the world who were suffering long before the virus took hold. They need our help.

 

 

How can you help?

Just do your thing! You’re a writer and as the old adage goes: writers write. Right? And that means writing competitions. Just like this one.

The winning story will be narrated by Katie Leung, who has kindly volunteered her time and talent, and will be published here at BIBLIOPHONE. As with our previous writing competitions, we’ll feature the winning story on our homepage for at least a month and we’ll tweet it every day for at least as long.

You’re invited to include an author bio with your story and if you win we’ll publish that too, including a link to your website, blog, social media etc. In other words, we want to help you get some serious publicity as a writer. And if you've not had your work published in audio format before, we want to introduce a new dimension to your author platform.

All you have to do is head over to our JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bibliophone and make your donation. £6/$6/€6/AU$6/CAN$6 is the minimum donation we ask for to enter the writing competition. If you’d like to give more please do, but just by donating the set value you’ll be making a difference to someone’s life. Once you’ve made your donation to the Scottish Refugee Council you’re all set to enter the competition.

Just fill in the form here when you’re ready with your story. You need to enter a few details and upload your story file. Whatever name you’d like to have associated with your story is fine by us. We understand a good pseudonym. But please remember that if you use a different name to make your donation over at JustGiving, include it in the box provided on the writing competition entry page just so that we know you’re eligible to enter.

You need to make your donation by midnight on Wednesday 31 March 2021, and the writing competition closes two weeks later on Wednesday 14 April, so you have until then to get your story in to us.

Your story needs to be no longer than 1000 words (and yes it is a strict word limit – that is the aim of the competition after all!) and can be about anything.

 

Thank you, wonderful writers

Just by entering 1000 Words Heard for the Scottish Refugee Council you’ll be a winner. Like almost everyone on planet earth, your life has probably changed over the past year. The chances are, you or someone you know has been impacted by COVID-19, either medically or financially. But that doesn’t mean you don’t think about others.

So thank you. Thank you for putting others first. Thank you for putting your short story writing skills to good use. Thank you for helping those who were already in trouble before coronavirus. You are heroes.

 

One last thing

As authors you are geniuses when it comes marketing yourselves and your written work. We know your short story writing skills are positively sublime, but we also know that you're great at selling yourselves. If we can ask you to go one step further and spread the word across your social media platforms about the writing competition, we can get a real movement underway and make huge inroads into making life more livable for those who really need our help at this time. So please, please do all you can to shout about this writing competition. We don't profit from our writing competitions and we won't take a penny of the donations raised so please help us to help refugees build a better, safer life. Thank you.

Please share this competition to help us spread the word:

Topic: writing competitions