Planet Essay Competition

Prize-winning essays on Literature Wales' website

Planet: The Welsh Internationalist is a quarterly periodical featuring new poetry and fiction by writers from Wales as well as from abroad. Produced in Aberystwyth, it also includes the latest stories from Wales on arts and politics, informed comment on environmental and social issues, and an extensive book review section. Recent articles have dealt with the war in Afghanistan and the rights of women there, green economic solutions to the current global financial crisis and the Venice Biennale.

In summer 2009, Planet ran an essay competition which called for a maximum of 2500 words on any Welsh or international issue which the writer felt strongly about. Topics could be from any field and from any angle, including history, the environment, philosophy, science, social issues, arts criticism or policy or language issues. Emphasis was placed on in-depth essays which were challenging yet accessible to the non-specialist reader, and which approached the essay form or style in different and imaginative ways.

Judged by the Planet editorial team, the two winning essays were published in the autumn issue of Planet (196). David Greenslade won the overall prize of £300 for 'A Maze of Muck and Murder', on the complicated relationship between nations in the region bordering the Black Sea, while the under-30s prize of £200 was won by Huw David Jones for his essay 'War Declared! Art and Society in Wales 1966-77'.

Literature Wales is proud to be able to feature these two prize-winning essays on its website. To access each essay, please click on their titles in the paragraph above.
 
Annual subscription to Planet starts from as little as £22 a year. For more information, including how to subscribe, please visit their website at http://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/html/newsite/index.htm.

Planet is published with the support of the Welsh Books Council.