Call for Stories
The Blue-White Dot represents the only place we call home—the Earth. On 14 February 1990, a historic photograph of planet Earth was taken by the spacecraft Voyager 1 as it exited the solar system. The Earth in the photograph is 6 billion kilometres away, dwarfed by the great expanse of space and reduced to a mere dot. Coined "a pale blue dot" by astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the Earth in the photograph is wondrous yet vulnerable. It reminds us of our great responsibility to care for this tiny speck and protect the lives that exist within it.
Join The Blue-White Dot Short Story Writing Competition to embark on a literary journey towards achieving the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)!
Write a 2,500-3,500 word fictional story centred around themes in the 17 SDGs and stand a chance to get published and earn royalties.
Entry is free and open to all aspiring authors.
Submission closes on 31 December 2022.
Learn about the themes in the SDGs here!
Click here to submit your story.
Terms and Conditions
Eligibility
- Entry is free and open to all aspiring writers.
Submission
- Story must be written in English.
- Story must be fictional and can be of any fictional genre.
- Story must be original, unpublished, and does not infringe the intellectual property, privacy and other rights of any third party.
- Story must be between 2,500 and 3,500 words in length.
- Story must not be accompanied by any image/illustration/sketch/photograph/diagram/graph.
- Story must be appropriate for a general audience and does not include content that is libellous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, harassing or threatening.
- Story must be submitted via the official Submission Form. Submissions by any other means will not be accepted.
- Story must be submitted in a format that is Microsoft Word compatible.
- If a story has multiple writers, only the details of the primary author are required for submission purposes.
- Competition closes on 31 December 2022.
Judging Criteria
- Story is well written, authentic and creative.
- Story embodies the idea behind or the message underlying any of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Story showcases sustainable behaviour, technologies, practices or ideas, and/or illustrates solutions to sustainability issues/conflicts.
- Decision reached by the independent panel of judges is final. No appeals or disputes will be entertained.
Prize
- Winning stories will be published in an anthology by Sunway University Press. Sunway University Press reserves the right to publish the anthology in any format deemed suitable.
- Winners will receive royalties from the sale of the publication, if any. The best three stories will receive royalties in advance in the following amount: 1st Place (RM1,000), 2nd Place (RM750), and 3rd Place (RM500). Other winning stories will receive an advance royalty of RM200 each.
- Winners will receive five free copies of the publication.
Publication
- Sunway University Press reserves the right to publish and/or make available to the public the winning stories after the winners are announced.
- Copyright in the winning stories will be assigned and transferred to Sunway University Press for the purposes of publishing, republishing, transmitting, printing, selling, distributing, advertising, promoting, and licensing the stories for publication.
Personal Data Collection
- The personal data collected will be processed by Sunway University Press to administer the participation of writers for the purpose of this competition.
- By participating in this competition, writers give consent to Sunway University Press to use the information for its purposes. Sunway University Press will take the appropriate measures needed to ensure security and confidentiality of the personal data provided.
