Short Story Competition
Call for Submissions
‘Life in the Mediterranean’ 2025 Short Story Competition
Winners:
First place: Pearl Z. Armeni, St Aloysius College Sixth Form
Second place: Michael Mercieca, St Aloysius College Sixth Form
Third place: Milan Najdov, G.F. Abela Junior College
In January 2025, REMED launched a creative writing competition for post-secondary students on the theme of ‘Life in the Mediterranean’. Students were invited to submit an original piece of writing in English of up to 1,500 words in the genre of the short story, and were inivited to engage with any of the following topics:
- Human and nonhuman lives:Human beings, animals, plants and other organisms, wider marine and terrestrial ecosystems and environments
- Hidden lives: Marginalized groups, forgotten historical figures, endangered lives
- Cultural, historical, and social ways of life: Mediterranean traditions, histories, contemporary social dynamics, urban and rural life, Mediterranean travel
- Value and quality of life in the Mediterranean: Social equality, migration, sustainability, changing climate
- Revisiting the past / imagining the future: Historical or speculative narratives
- Personal experiences and reflections: Personal stories or their own unique reflection on Mediterranean life
Entries were evaluated on their originality, their relevance to the theme, their use of language, style, and the overall impact of the writing. The winning entries were selected by a panel of judges from the REMED project, the University of Malta’s Department of English, Antae: A Journal of Creative Writing, and the Department of English Student Association (DESA).
Winners received a total of €250 in book vouchers from Agenda bookshop and their stories were published in Antae: A Journal of Creative Writing. The winning entries can be read here.
The awards were presented at a prize-giving ceremony held at the end of the (Re-)Visiting the Mediterranean Spring School.
