The International Human Rights Art Movement (IHRAM) African Secretariat is seeking poetry, short stories, narratives, and essays from writers across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region for Writing Climate Resilience 2026, a literary project that puts storytelling at the centre of the conversation about climate change and its human consequences. Submissions are open until May 15, 2026.

The call emerges from an urgent regional reality. During the 2025–2026 rainy season alone, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa suffered devastating floods, droughts, and hunger crises that displaced communities, destroyed infrastructure, and stripped people, including children, of access to shelter and education. Across the sixteen SADC member states, climate change continues to drive loss of life, economic collapse, and deepening social inequality. Writing Climate Resilience asks writers to meet that reality with language, through adaptation, resilience, lived experience, and imaginative vision.

Writers may submit work in any of the following genres: poetry (maximum 40 lines), short stories (up to 3,000 words), and narratives or essays (up to 3,000 words). All submissions must be in 12-point Times New Roman font, submitted as a Word document, and accompanied by a 15-line bio, full name, email address, and country. The subject line should read Writing Climate Resilience followed by the writer’s full name. Four winners (one per category) as well as all shortlisted writers will be published in the Writing Climate Resilience anthology by IHRAM Publishes and Press, with soft copies going out to contributors in September 2026. All shortlisted participants will also be inducted into IHRAM’s African Writing Program Mentorship Sessions. Cash prizes range from $25 to $100.

All submissions will be curated and edited by IHRAM Zimbabwean Director Mbizo Chirasha in partnership with IHRAM’s Head Office in New York. Shortlisted submissions will be announced in June 2026, with the anthology published in August. Send submissions and direct all enquiries to Mbizo Chirasha at [email protected].