A horror story? A love scene? A murder mystery? A Medieval fantasy? For centuries, forests have been a source of literary inspiration, and with the UN declaring 2011 as the International Year of Forests, it made total sense to choose them as the theme of IAPTI’s first literary contest, A Forest of Words.

How does it work?

The contest is open to all IAPTI members, with the exclusion of those who are part of the Board and/or of the Ethics Committee of IAPTI. Stories must be 250 words or less, must be written in English and must be related to the theme “Forests”, understood as broadly as possible. They must be sent, signed, to the address aforestofwords@aipti.org between 16th May and 16th June, 2011. They will then be posted in anonymous form to the thread http://www.aipti.org/ourforum/showthread.php?tid=1448, where they will be available for all members to read. Each participant will be able to send as many stories as they want to.

Voting will open on 17th June and will close on 29th June, 2011. All IAPTI members will have the right to vote regardless of whether they have submitted a story or not. Each member will have 7 points which they can distribute among as few or as many stories as they choose. For example, you may choose to give 7 points to your favourite story, or you may choose to give 1 point each to 7 different stories, or any other combination of the 7 points. Votes must also be sent to the address aforestofwords@aipti.org.

The winning entry (i.e. the story which has obtained the highest number of points) and the name of its author will be announced on 30th June in the forum.

The winner will receive a $100 voucher to spend in the Amazon online store of their choice.

So sharpen your pencils and have fun! And don?t forget to visit a nearby forest for inspiration!

Eva Moreda (Head – UK Chapter)