Water Stories – Writing Competition
The competition, open to young writers aged nine to 17, invites participants to explore their thoughts about water in a story that imagines the future.
Participants are asked to write a short story of between 500 and 1,500 words in English prose, exploring the role water might play in the world to come. There are no right or wrong answers — only the stories, ideas, and questions that matter to them.
This international competition is part of ongoing research at FAU in Germany and University of Birmingham in the UK, aiming to raise awareness of the climate and water crises that urgently shape our world.
Purpose of the Competition
The project has two key goals:
- Inspiring creative engagement – encouraging young people to think imaginatively about the future of water.
- Supporting research – collecting stories for a dataset used to analyse how young writers talk about water and environmental futures.
This work forms part of the PhD research of Andreas Wagner in the Text and Language Lab, led by Prof. Mahlberg and funded through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Collaboration in Birmingham
During Andreas Wagner’s DAAD-funded research stay at the Birmingham Institute of Sustainability and Climate Action, the competition is supported by Prof. David Hannah, who contributes in his role as UN Chair of Water Science.
The competition runs from March 2026 until 30 September 2026.
March 2026
Launch of the competition
22.03.2026
World Water Day
April 2026
Weekly upload of teaching materials
18.06.2026
Complete booklet on “How to write your story”
– 30.09.2026
Submit your story
31.10.2026
Judging phase
November 2026
Winner announcement
Resources
This collection of resources leads to external web-pages and info material about the water-cycle in general and the water extremes of floods, droughts and pollution.
- Resouce pack on water cycle by STEM learning: https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/library/resource/496739/water-cycle
- Information on the water cycle and climate change: https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/climate-change-impacts/water-cycle-climate-change
Materials: Information
- File Name
- OurFutureOurWaterOurStories_CardA6
- File Size
- 2 MB
- File Type
Materials: How to write your story
The following materials provide 11 sessions on ‘How to write your story’ with a focus on the topic of water.
Each Thursday from April until June a new worksheet on how to develop the story is added.
The table of contents provides an overview of the sessions.
- File Name
- Booklet_1
- File Size
- 643 KB
- File Type
- File Name
- Booklet_2-3
- File Size
- 653 KB
- File Type
How to enter
As individual
For individual entries we created an online plattform with LimeSurvey, where the legal guardians and the child can enter their consent as well as upload their story.
As class
If you are a teacher and want your whole class to participate, you can download the resource pack below, print it out and hand it to your class. You can submit it either as scanned version to our contact e-mail adress or send a physical copy to the adress of the Department Digital Humanities and Social Studies.
- File Name
- ResourcePack_en_OFWS
- File Size
- 803 KB
- File Type
- ZIP
Persons
Andreas Wagner, M. Sc.
Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology
Department of Digital Humanities and Social Studies (DHSS)
- Email: andreas.w.wagner@fau.de
Prof. Dr. Michaela Mahlberg
Department of Digital Humanities and Social Studies (DHSS)
W3-Professorship for Digital Humanities with a focus on Computing Text and Language
- Email: michaela.mahlberg@fau.de
Prof. Dr. David Hannah
University of Birmingham
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Email: d.m.hannah@bham.ac.uk
Contact
Partners and Funding
![BlackText-Landscape[86][66]](https://www.dhss.phil.fau.eu/files/2026/02/BlackText-Landscape8666.png)
