Climate Stories in Action | 2024
The Spring Creek Project and Terrain.org are partnering on “Climate Stories in Action,” a call for creative submissions to inspire collective action on climate change. This call for submissions is running in anticipation of Spring Creek Project’s upcoming virtual lecture series, “Collective Climate Action: Inspired Organizing for Our Future.”
A Need for New Climate Stories
By some research estimates, 98 percent of climate and environmental reporting is negative. Climate stories tend to focus on the overall issue and impact by explaining climate science or consequences. Very few focus on action or offer examples of what successful and inspiring collective climate action looks like.
Psychologists have been studying how stories about climate change affect people. They tell us that the doom and disaster narratives that dominate newsfeeds often lead us to withdraw, shut down and feel isolated. Stories about climate solutions and actions do the opposite. Narratives and art that center solutions, introduce us to everyday climate heroes, and showcase the joy discovered through community engagement often lead to feelings of agency and possibility.
The “Climate Stories in Action” series will expand our vision of climate activism and help people imagine meaningful ways to be involved. We are inviting storytellers to submit poetry, nonfiction, fiction, art and multimedia pieces that showcase climate activism in professional, civic and community life. We are interested in stories that help shift our cultural mindset from despair to creative possibility and from isolation to collective purpose.
We welcome submissions about how being a part of this critical climate movement can help us live better, more meaningful, lives. We are interested in stories that help us dream about what is possible, that bring to life why collective action matters, and that inspire people to find or redefine their roles in the climate movement.
This groundswell of new climate stories—narratives and art that people can see themselves in—is essential to building the collective response needed at this hingepoint for humans and the planet.
Submit Your Work
We are currently accepting submissions for the “Climate Stories in Action” series. From those submitted, a review committee will select 12 pieces for publication. Selected contributors will receive $200. There is no entry fee to submit.
The priority submission deadline is April 8, 2024, at midnight. The selected works will be published in Terrain.org beginning in May 2024 and announced via Terrain.org and the Spring Creek Project.