New Brunswick is one of Canada’s most rural provinces, with well over half of residents living in a rural setting. Yet stories from a rural perspective or about rural life are rarely published in corporate media.
Since 2018, the NB Media Co-op has been a partner on the RAVEN project (Rural Action and Voices from the Environment) at the University of New Brunswick. Together we have published almost 200 stories in the NB Media Co-op on rural and environmental issues ranging from food security and farming to rural governance to radioactive waste at Point Lepreau.
We’re now looking for more stories from rural writers to publish in the NB Media Co-op. To stimulate submissions, RAVEN’s food security policy analyst Amy Floyd is coordinating a writing contest.
The long-term goal is to encourage more people to be comfortable sharing their stories and making contributions to the NB Media Co-op and discussing rural issues. Amy will work with contestants who have appropriate stories to help get them ready for publication. You can read all of Amy’s stories published by the NB Media Co-op here.
The writing contest is open now until the end of 2021. The winners will be announced in early 2022 followed by publication of stories throughout that year. There will be modest cash prizes for the top five stories (selected through a jury), $50 for runners up and $150 for the top story.
For more information, check out the RAVEN contest site.