Write your way to a better future

Young Queenslanders have the chance to submit a postcard from a hopeful, post-COVID future as part of a new University of Queensland creativity project.

Wish you were here! Postcards from Future Queensland is aimed at empowering high school and university students to imagine a better future through storytelling.

The project is led by prominent authors Associate Professor Kim Wilkins and Dr Helen Marshall from UQ’s School of Communication and Arts, who see the COVID-19 crisis as a potential turning point.

 “We want our youth to imagine what they want Queensland to look like when life resumes,” Associate Professor Wilkins said.

“COVID-19 is altering life in ways that were unimaginable even a few weeks ago and while this is undeniably frightening, as writers we also see it as a moment of possibility.

“The postcards should reflect what kind of a world they would like to grow up in. What do they hope will be the same? What do they hope will change forever?”

Every fortnight throughout Term 2 and 3 (April 20 to September 18), the project team will produce a free, short video lesson in creative writing and propose a challenge.

Each challenge will involve students sending their own postcard from the future and submitting it online. 

A select number of entries will be published as a snapshot of a world that could be, while UQ’s student-led publisher, Corella Press, will produce a chapbook of some of the best entries.

Dr Marshall said it was a chance for young writers to immerse themselves in the art of world building.

“Once the realm of science fiction and fantasy writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, game designers, teachers and business innovators are now building worlds so they can engage audiences, create thought experiments and imagine new environments,” Dr Marshall said.

“For storytellers, a world is an imaginative space where people, systems and ideas evolve and interact with one another in exciting and unpredictable ways.
“It is our hope that this community outreach initiative will enable people to imagine a better Queensland, after COVID-19.

“And we will give you the tools to help you explore that strange new world,” she said.

Media: Associate Professor Kim Wilkins, k.wilkins@uq.edu.au; Dr Helen Marshall, helen.marshall@uq.edu.au; Kristen Johnston, k.johnston@uq.edu.au, 0407 656 518.