Share your 2020 Blue Mountains Stories
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Entries for Blue Mountains Stories: A Year Like No Other are open now. Submit your experience of life in the Blue Mountains throughout this extraordinary year in words, images or a combination of both, for a chance to be exhibited as well as to win generous prizes.
An initiative of the Blue Mountains City Council, Blue Mountains Stories: A Year Like No Other seeks to collect our community's individual experiences of this remarkable year, along with our hopes for the future.
Mayor Cr. Mark Greenhill said, "2020 is a time like no other; bushfires, floods and COVID-19 have tested us all. We’ve faced challenges of isolation, instability, fear for our safety and that of those we love, as well as the future of our beautiful part of the world. Many in our community are also rethinking and reshaping the kind of world they want to live in. Blue Mountains Stories: A Year Like No Other allows us to share a creative response to these extreme events."
There is a vast amount of research and evidence about the positive effects of sharing stories. Social Researcher at the Blue Mountains City Council, Rhiannon Walker, reflected on the importance of this project to the community: "It is important we capture people's experiences of these unprecedented times, and this retrospective will be a reflection on life in the Blue Mountains during this remarkable year. The Blue Mountains is home to so many incredible storytellers of all ages, with unique perspectives, and we want to hear yours.”
Blue Mountains Stories: A Year Like No Other is open to anyone who lives in the Blue Mountains local government area. There are three categories for judging; Open, High School and Primary School.
The prizes for the Open category are $1,000 (1st prize), $750 (2nd prize) and $500 (3rd prize).
There are six $100 vouchers for the winning high school submissions. The prizes for submissions from primary school children include 10 book or art supply vouchers valued at $30 each.
Varuna, the National Writers’ House, are lending their expertise to Blue Mountains Stories as a creative facilitator.
Entries close at midnight on Tuesday, 15 December 2020. For further details and to enter, please visit https://yoursay.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/blue-mountains-stories or contact the Blue Mountains City Council via [email protected].