Dark ‘n’ Light turns four in May. While approaching this anniversary, we’ve been thinking a lot about the proverbial and literal ending of worlds and catastrophic, apocalyptic change. To paraphrase T. S Eliot, will the world really end not with a bang, but with a whimper?
What does an apocalypse really entail? Drawing from the work of the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), we invite you to think of the apocalypse not merely as an end to everything in nature, or of the human race, but also as radical change, or perhaps even a catalyst that “reveals the true meaning and destiny of this world”.
As N.K. Jemisin writes in The Stone Sky (2017), “Ah, my love. An apocalypse is a relative thing, isn’t it?” So, contrary to seeing apocalypse as universalising or totalising or as something coming in a distant—or maybe not so distant—future. We want to shake up some of these social and temporal definitions and expand our imaginations to take a closer look at the world ending catastrophes that have destroyed indigenous and other peoples in the past, the multiple species that have gone extinct and the slow, ongoing militarised, economic and ecological violence of the present.
To tease and trouble notions around the apocalypse, we’re hosting a short fiction contest called ‘Stories at the End of the World’. The theme? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
While the concept is biblical in origin, there are ecological, social, political and economic implications that we’d love to explore in fiction. In the Book of Revelation, the four horsemen symbolise war, pestilence, famine and death, but there are so many more possibilities of what the harbingers of the end of the world could be—or have been—for the worlds that have already ended. The apocalypse could have global or cosmic proportions; it could be one big apocalypse or an endless procession of little ones; it could be the end of a region, community, or individual; it could be centred around the human or the more-than-human; it could be all-encompassing, or experienced in particular fields, such as ecology, economy or religion. The truth, as it has been said, could be stranger than fiction. But we want you to take that as a challenge!
Window for submissions: 17th April-17th May
Word Limit: 2000 words
What you can expect: Three stories will be selected for a chance to be published on our website and receive an honorarium. First and second place winners will also receive a hamper from Dark ‘n’ Light.
The winners will be announced in the first week of June, chosen by a surprise guest judge, who will be revealed soon!
To enter the competition, fill up this form.
We look forward to reading the new worlds you build. Follow us on social media for more thoughts about apocalypses, inspiration, updates about the competition, and more.
