Writing Competitions

Call for submissions poster. Collection aims to explore Scottish Natural Landscapes, Cultural Heritage, & Environmental Preservation

SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED! Stay tuned!



Exploring Scottish Natural Landscapes, Cultural Heritage, and Environmental Preservation 

Genre(s): Contemporary landscape writing (>4500 WC), poetry

We look forward to publishing pieces written in or inspired by contemporary landscape style* emphasising the relationship between self and place, nature and culture.

Arkbound invites UK writers and poets to participate in their latest competition which explores the historical significance and cultural emphasis on Scotland’s natural landscapes. Participants are encouraged to submit works of poetry and prose, analysing and reflecting on Scottish landscape, its hand in shaping national identity, environmental preservation, biodiversity, urban pollution. We are interested in reviewing submissions exploring…

 

  • Landscape memory: How the landscape holds collective memory, how historical events and environmental changes are etched into the landscape, and how these memories shape contemporary Scottish identity.

  • Intangible cultural heritage: Culture passed through generations, tied to the landscape—from oral storytelling, traditional music, and landscape-based skills (such as peat cutting)—and how these traditions are preserved, adapted, or lost.

  • Urban & rural landscapes: Tension between development and preservation, including how modern infrastructure can either threaten or integrate with the greater natural landscape.

    Gaelic submissions are welcomed

 

Submission Guidelines

Please submit your poem or prose piece (under 4,500 words) via the below form, along with the following information:

* Please refer to N. Alexander’s description of contemporary landscape writing (2015) as a stylistic guide:

 “Contemporary landscape writing often seeks to revalue and explore ordinary landscapes with everyday habitats, eschewing conceptions of natural landscapes and ‘wilderness.’ However the same texts….imply a deeper network of associations linking ideas of landscapes to the sacred, the mystical, and the extraordinary….these texts typically draw upon the resources of several distinct genres of writing to compose formally hybrid narratives. Elements of memoir, travelogue, nature writing, cultural history…”