Welcome to STORYTELLING: A new initiative dedicated towards creative literary engagements with the climate crisis. Interested? UnEarth is calling for submissions!

Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. There is no silver bullet solution to the myriad threats it poses, no single approach that will shed clarity on its complexities, no comprehensive answer to the clamouring questions it poses. These questions, about who we are, both as individuals and as a species, in relation to the concentric circles of family, community, nation, planet, can seem overwhelming. Where are we coming from and where are we headed? How do we go about changing everything about the way we live, eat, move, socialise, see the world? How do we turn knowledge into belief, and belief into action? How do we extricate ourselves from a system that values profit over life? What tools can we use to puncture the myth of infinite growth and replace it with humility? 

Every question births another. Luckily, no single mind has to come with answers to all of them. For the past few years, UnEarth Magazine’s incredible team of writers and editors has been at the forefront of the St Andrews student body’s efforts to tackle these topics. 

The magazine is now looking to broaden its scope beyond the analytical language of its prior publications. Under the heading- STORYTELLING- the magazine is looking to publish creative literary engagements with the climate crisis. These can range from poems to short stories, descriptive passages and thought pieces; the possibilities are endless. In terms of content, the possibilities are equally broad, though we would like to encourage our applicants to find room for hope, if possible, in their pieces. It is not UnEarth’s intention to publish a dispiriting portfolio of grim, apocalyptic scenarios.

It is by telling stories that we can engage our hearts as well as our minds. It is by evoking what is under threat, what is on the line, and what has already been lost, that we will finally snap out of our collective apathy. And it is by sketching out promising alternatives that the world will lose its sheen of inevitability. The first step towards changing society is re-imagining it.

Participants can submit pieces to unearthmag@gmail.com at all times! Please also include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and a headshot to accompany your submission.