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.