Get ready to write about and celebrate urban trees

Be the first to favourite this.

2023 marks a new partnership with the award-winning Urban Tree Festival as we will be administering the Festival’s writing competition, that launches with a free hour long online creative writing workshop on Sunday 4 December (Book your place via this link). The competition will be open for submissions of (flash) stories or poems of 250 words and under and will run until midnight on Monday 13 March 2023.

As walking among trees in their urban and suburban neighbourhoods is central to their creativity, we asked Joanna Wolfarth and ML Grieve, winners of the 2022 Festival writing competition, to come up with a theme for the Urban Tree festival 2023 writing competition, adding that we wanted to encourage people to get out and about on foot, among urban trees.

The theme they have chosen is “Secrets of The Trees”.

Our urban trees have stood central to the story of urban development and urban living for centuries. What human stories have they witnessed? Time to give the urban trees a voice!

How has the urban population relied upon them both practically and spiritually?
What do these trees represent to a variety of cultures?

What can our trees reveal about global connections and histories? 

How do our trees help us find a sense of belonging in our urban environment?
What personal stories feature your urban trees? (Maybe you proposed under a tree, took your baby out for their first walk…etc)
What possibilities do urban trees provide for our future? 

The pieces can be grounded in life writing or fiction, with two categories of Poetry and Prose Writing. The latter can encompass any genre of fiction or nonfiction, including memoir and personal essays. 

The Urban Tree festival will publish an anthology of the best poetry and prose submitted both in an illustrated chapbook anthology as well as an audio locative podcast.  Shortlisted pieces will be showcased during the Urban Tree Festival 2023, at a public online event that will be hosted by walk · listen · create in which the shortlisted authors and poets of this writing competition will be invited to read their work. We are seeking engaging narratives whether they are fiction or fact.

Submissions must be made via the walk · listen · create website from Sunday 4 December, until midnight (UTC) on Monday 13 March 2023. Read more and enter from here.

Andrew Stuck

Founder Online Jury 2022 Online Jury 2023

Andrew is the founder of the Museum of Walking, created to bring people together and to make and showcase walking pieces and performances. Andrew also is a podcaster, interviewing creative people who use walking as a catalyst for their practice. Talking Wa...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Also check out

Free
Walking Event
Grief, Loss and Place – a discussion & audio walk

THE 2022 FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE - Lancaster University

2022-11-12 13:00

Lancaster Central Library, Market Street, Lancaster LA1 1HY, UK

Free
Walking Event
Walking Detective meet-up

2023-01-23 20:00

Online

We want to uncover the forgotten or not yet revealed walking compositions - will you help us in our detective work as we search through archives and make connections with walking artists, performers and writers across the globe?

Free
Walking Event
Walking Detective meet-up

2022-12-12 19:00

Online

We want to uncover the forgotten or not yet revealed walking compositions – will you help us in our detective work as we search through archives and make connections with walking artists, performers and writers across the globe?

Post
New
Kelly Writers House at Penn hosts a 10 day discussion group on walking…

10 Mar, 2023

Curated news
But is it walking art?

3 Dec, 2022

Free
Walking Event
Sound Walk Sunday 2017

3 Sep, 2017 · All day

La Romieu, France

Curated news
Canada’s new 700km island path – BBC Travel

12 Dec, 2022

Free
Walking Event
Of Walking on Thin Ice (Camino to COP26)

XR Walkers

2022-11-16 17:30

The IronWorks, 90 High Street, Southend-on-Sea SS1 1JN, UK

Post
New
The Chalk Walk: the comfort of the familiar

25 Feb, 2023

Museum of Walking
7 of the best walking podcasts

1 Dec, 2022

Walking Event
Sound/Image22 Conference & Festival

Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sciences University of Greenwich, UK

18 - 20 Nov, 2022

Stockwell Street Building, 10 Stockwell Street, London SE10 9BD, UK

Post
R&D – A Guide to Creating Spatial Audio Podcasts

12 Dec, 2022