Literary festival ILFU launches storytelling competition for all forms of storytelling - From prose to film, music to TikTok videos

ILFU (International Literary Festival Utrecht) is launching a national storytelling competition for the second time - in which stories in all possible forms are welcome. The ILFU Verhalenwedstrijd is the first interdisciplinary story contest in the Netherlands, organised on the belief that good stories can and should be told in all conceivable forms. The theme of this year's contest is What matters. Entries can be made until 5 September and the grand prize is €5,000.

All narrative forms and types

A good story comes in many shapes and sizes. Prose, film, poetry, photography, non-fiction, columns, comics, spoken word, music, performance, radio plays, theatre, dance, vlogs, Instastories or TikTok videos... In this storytelling competition, storytellers can participate in all possible forms of storytelling. Michaël Stoker, director of ILFU, explains why this broad approach was chosen: "You can find a good story in a book as much as in a film, a pop song, a poem or a dialogue. Last year, there were an awful lot of entries, from makers from all kinds of disciplines. Lemuël de Graav's fantastic short spoken word film ended up being the winner. This year, we will again look for the storytellers of the future in all kinds of art forms." The stories will be judged and awarded in five categories: Text, Audio/Music, Image, Drama and Spoken Word.

Award ceremony during ILFU

Submissions can be made until 5 September 2021 via story contest.ilfu.com. The stories that win this competition will be put on a big stage by ILFU. During the festival (23 September to 2 October), the nominees and winners will be announced. In addition to a cash prize of €5,000 (and category prizes of €1,000), entrants will thus have a chance of winning a large audience for their story. ILFU wants as many people as possible to read, see or hear the winning stories.

''I hate poetry'

Last year, the ILFU Storytelling Competition was organised for the first time. From 1237 entries, the story of Lemuël de Graav declared the winner. This spoken word artist, poet and filmmaker submitted a short film, I hate poetry entitled. The film is viewable via Vimeo. "A qualitatively superbly executed short film, an indictment of the literary world," the jury said in 2020.

Good to know

The ILFU Stories Competition is an initiative of ILFU, the largest literary festival in the Netherlands. Taking place from 23 September to 2 October 2021, ILFU is for everyone who loves stories. The theme of ILFU 2021 is Why fiction matters. In a world of volatile journalism, fake news, opinions and contradictions, literature helps you understand reality better. In fiction, there is the possibility to really think freely, beyond the delusion of the day. We are convinced that fiction matters and therefore share the stories of the widest possible variety of writers.