lockdown: a collection of short stories

In 2020, Collins Dictionary declared the word of the year as ‘lockdown’ as it encapsulated the shared experience of billions of people across the world. By the end of March 2020, South Africa joined the long list of the countries that instituted a complete lockdown and well over a year since then; the country remains in a partial lockdown with changing alert levels that leave South Africans living in a constant state of apprehension as we ride the coronavirus wave.

Psychologists have broken down this lockdown coronacoaster into seven emotional stages:

• Initial optimism
• Determination
• Satisfaction and frustration
• Depression
• Anger
• Acceptance
• Making meaning

COINAGE has opened a call for South African writers to submit short stories for the anthology Lockdown: a collection of short stories. The short stories should speak to any of the seven emotional stages of lockdown.

GUIDELINES:

• Writers may only submit two short stories
• Short stories may not be longer than 8000 words
• Entries may be sent in the following formats: WORD or PDF
• Entries can only be in English
• Submissions must be emailed to lockdown@coinage.africa as an attachment: Subject: (Your Name)_LOCKDOWN STORY SUBMISSION.
• Please use legible fonts
• Your name, email, cell number & place of residence must be included in the body of your email
• 16 SELECTED short stories will EACH RECEIVE R500 CASH FOR THEIR WINNING ENTRY
• The panel will not engage in any communication other than contacting the selected/winning writers
• DEADLINE: 30 APRIL 2022
• The panel may publish excerpts from the winning short stories on all social media platforms after obtaining publicity rights from contributors.

For more information, email: lockdown@coinage.africa