We are delighted to let you know that the submissions window is now open for our ‘Energy Stories’ creative writing competition.

£250 prize for the winning entry

Life on Earth is dependent on energy, for plants to grow and currents to flow. For humans the most, energy is an integral part of our survival, despite that it often arrives unseen direct to our sockets. The planet has an abundance of it – from the sunlight trapped by our atmosphere to the boiling rock below our feet – but there is always a cost to harvesting it. When we lit our lamps with whale oil, the cost was the near extinction of some of the most magnificent species on the planet. When we set fire to twenty-five million years’ worth of sunshine-turned-coal, we fuelled progress in human comfort, health and wellbeing but poisoned our atmosphere with carbon dioxide. When we continue to burn fossil fuels we can travel and heat with ease but accelerate the climate crisis and put lives in peril. Meanwhile, renewables are evolving rapidly. How might their output be used more inventively and equitably? What might the harvesting and use of energy look like in the future – at best or worst – within our communities and landscapes?

Poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, past present or future, tell us your energy story.

Competition Guidelines

• The Competition is open to anyone 16 and over living in Scotland.
• We are open to receiving poetry and fiction or nonfiction prose.
• For prose, please submit a maximum of 500 words.
• For poetry please submit a maximum of 25 lines.
• Submissions in English, Scots or Scottish Gaelic, are welcome.
• No more than one entry per person.
• The winning entry will receive a prize of £250 and be published in a special edition of the Paperboats Zine. Highly commended entries will also be published in the Zine and receive a Paperboats badge made by Glasgow Artist David McDiarmid, based on an original design by George Wyllie.
• The competition judges are Liam Bell and Nicole Love from the University of Strathclyde.
• The deadline for entries is Midnight on Wednesday 15th April 2026.
• Attach your submission as a Word or RTF document to an email, make sure to include your name and postcode, and send it to: EnergyStories@paperboats.org.