In the words of that omnipresent voice-over that plays before we get into anything on YouTube, writing’s not that easy. However, writing’s role in this pandemonium has evolved into something deeper for others: to seek refuge, if not total comfort.

If putting your words on paper has helped you understand yourself and the world’s situation better, this might be the sign to kick it up a notch. In case you missed last year’s call, UP Writers Club’s public workshop is back, back, back again to gather ‘round aspiring storytellers.

For their public workshop’s second run, the University of the Philippines Diliman-based literary organization is looking for nonfiction and experimental nonfiction works following the theme “Disconnections.” This includes delving into the “ironies behind our mediated disconnections” and the “strange, fragmented realities” happening during today’s health crisis.

“The miracle of digital connection invariably welcomes an obvious realization: the devastating isolation of having everything on the Internet. Call it languish, call it video call fatigue—we’re all grasping at what normal used to feel like,” they said on Facebook.

To sign up, keep these in mind:

• Send a 500- to 2,000-word (or one to eight pages) nonfiction or experimental nonfiction work. Visual art and other experimental elements must be included in the page count. (It won’t be considered if it exceeds the limit, bestie.)
• Format: Garamond size 12, single-spaced.
• The work can be in English or Filipino.
• Send it as a PDF file to [email protected] with this subject line: [UPWC Public Workshop 2021] Surname, “Title of the Piece”.
• But before hitting send, write your full name and contact details in the e-mail’s body.

Two chosen entries will make it to the public workshop, which will take place on Zoom on Nov. 29, 1-4 p.m. The cherry on top? There’s a chance they can land on the org’s upcoming Sinuman Magazine, too.

Get those brain cells ready; call for entries is until Nov. 8, Monday, 11:59 p.m. For more info, head to this page.

Read more: 

How I wrote a whole novel in 30 days (without the panic)

Remember when Wattpad made us all writers? 

Ricky Lee: Non-writers can also be storytellers 

Still from “Shirley”