Life on Earth is dependent on energy, for plants to grow and currents to flow. For humans the most, energy is an integral part of our survival, despite that it often arrives unseen direct to our sockets. The planet has an abundance of it – from the sunlight trapped by our atmosphere to the boiling rock below our feet – but there is always a cost to harvesting it. When we lit our lamps with whale oil, the cost was the near extinction of some of the most magnificent species on the planet. When we set fire to twenty-five million years’ worth of sunshine-turned-coal, we fuelled progress in human comfort, health and wellbeing but poisoned our atmosphere with carbon dioxide. When we continue to burn fossil fuels we can travel and heat with ease but accelerate the climate crisis and put lives in peril. Meanwhile, renewables are evolving rapidly. How might their output be used more inventively and equitably? What might the harvesting and use of energy look like in the future – at best or worst – within our communities and landscapes?
Poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, past present or future, we asked you to tell us your energy stories.
The judges are delighted to announce the winning entry and three highly commended entries, below, which reflect on the competition brief with lively imaginativeness and a keen sense of how these issues impact on the individual. The overall quality of submissions was superb, but we were unanimous in choosing a winner which had a focus on character, voice and place that spoke to the idea that our stories about energy resonate through our past, present and future.
Highly Commended Entry
by Mathilde Stephanie Ngo Pouhe
Liam Bell is author of four novels, with the most recent being ‘Man at Sea’ (2022) and ‘The Sleepless’ (2024). He is Chancellor’s Fellow and Lythe Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice at the University of Strathclyde, where he is currently leading the Energy Stories project funded by the Scottish Research Alliance for Energy, Homes and Livelihoods.
Nicole Love is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, researching Alasdair Gray and Haruki Murakami’s Imaginary worlds and secondary selves. Her work has been anthologized by Fish and BffA and she has been longlisted for the Mslexia Short Story Competition for “Sullen Kinks” and the Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction for “The Second Amen.”
