India Science Festival is organizing a science fiction short story and poetry writing competition online to celebrate science and inspire creativity.
The India Science Festival (ISF) is the flagship annual event of the Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST India), a non-profit institution of excellence working to enable the transformation of India’s science and technology ecosystem through research and policy, government support, institutional strengthening, corporate sector engagement, and science communication.
India Science Festival is back, and they’re inviting entries for Spin Your Science, their flagship science fiction story/poem writing competition! They’re looking for stories that explore the intersection of science and imagination.
Tell them a short story or a poem that brings to life technologies that may have existed in the past, how deeply science interacts with the present, or a vision of what lies in the future – dystopian or utopian. They want to know what story or poem your imaginative mind can create!
While spinning your science, how will you engage your readers? What science would you like to incorporate? How will you introduce your science in a way that’s accessible? They are keen on reading your fascinating stories and poems! For the competition, you will also receive support from acclaimed authors through interactive webinars.
The competition is open to all sci-fi enthusiasts! There are no restrictions on age, background, education, or nationality. They’re inviting applications from all over the world!
The evaluation of entries will be done in two rounds.
ISF will select the top 20 finalists, who shall be known as the ISF fellows, through a competitive process of evaluation. The finalists will receive detailed feedback from an esteemed jury and will get to attend an online workshop by luminaries of sci-fi writing.
The top 20 selected stories/poems will be published on their website, social media handles, and annual magazine. Based on the evaluation done by the jury, the top three winners will be declared in December 2023.
India Science Fest will be awarding the top three winners with cash prizes as listed below:
Interested individuals can submit their entries via this link.
Note: They are permitting individual as well as team entries. However, each team can have a maximum of 2 people.
Your Science Fiction and Scientific Poetry should be under 1500 words. The story or poem can be based on any science topic. If you are using a current science or tech concept in your story, do make sure to give an accurate representation.
The story/poem should be submitted in both Word and PDF formats with the following typeface:
For any queries, please contact Shriya Naidu at shriya@fast-india.org.
