Caribbean climate-justice submissions open till June 14

The deadline for submissions for a Caribbean climate-justice anthology has been extended to midnight on June 14.

Caribbean writers based in the region and writing in English now have an additional week to prepare and submit their poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction pieces to be considered for the Writing for Our Lives anthology.

Writing for Our Lives was conceived as an anthology of stories illuminating the urgency of the climate crisis for people and communities of Caribbean states marked by their varied yet substantial vulnerabilities, a media release said.

The initiative is the second strand in the Today Today, Congotay! project, a series of climate-justice arts-based interventions being rolled out from 2023-2026, with funding from Open Society Foundations. It follows the pilot of a climate justice-themed community micro-theatre undertaking in 2023, carried out in collaboration with two secondary schools in semi-rural communities in Trinidad.

Leading the selection process and editing of the anthology is Professor Emeritus Funso Aiyejina, award-winning writer and long-standing friend of the foundation through his formative role, with author and lecturer Merle Hodge, in the development of the Cropper Foundation Residential Workshop for Caribbean Writers.

Aiyejina says in the release, “Justice, truth, empathy, and honesty were some of the concepts that often foregrounded our workshop discussions at the Cropper Workshop, no matter the subject.

"These same concepts are what we must urgently bring to bear on our relationship with Mother Earth. We either speak up in her defence now and force restorative and regenerative actions or we shall be swept away with everybody else as she is forced to respond to our recklessness and abuse with her own uncontrollable vengeance of Moko.”

He will be supported by Trinidadian poet and essayist Shivanee Ramlochan, herself a noted "Cropperite."

"The Cropper Foundation Writers Workshop was transformative to my sense of self as a Trinidadian writer, to my ability to name myself as one of us, proud and openly,” says Ramlochan in the release.

"Our Caribbean is on the frontlines of climate crisis. I'm grateful to the Cropper Foundation for taking up this charge and channelling it through our stories. Never have they mattered more."

Pleased with the support for the Writing for Our Lives anthology so far, CEO of the Cropper Foundation Omar Mohammed says, “We’re excited about the potential of this initiative to coalesce civil society, state and key institutional actors across and beyond the region as we seek to enliven and expand public consciousness on the fundamental justice issues of climate change.”

To support the development of thematically relevant submissions, organisers have shared recorded webinar presentations from Caribbean experts and advocates across climate-change impacts, policy and economics, climate litigation and climate justice as social justice.

The Cropper Foundation encourages would-be applicants to explore climate-justice resources available on the anthology webpage
https://thecropperfoundation.org/writingforourlives/, where eligibility criteria and submission guidelines can also be found.

Successful applicants will be announced in July. In addition to receiving expert group and one-on-one editorial support to strengthen their submissions towards the development of final pieces, they will each receive an honorarium on submission of final pieces.

Writing for Our Lives will be published in collaboration with the Bocas Lit Fest-run imprint Peekash Press, producing an initial e-book for international release at the annual landmark climate conference, COP29 in November. Print and audio publications will follow in the first quarter of 2025.

For any queries about eligibility requirements or the application process, e-mail: writing@thecropperfoundation.org.