REGULATION
XII INTERNATIONAL LITERARY STUDENT COMPETITION “WHOEVER SAVES ONE HUMAN LIFE SAVES THE WHOLE UNIVERSE”
2024-2025
ORGANIZER: Center for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation ” Alef “
PARTNERS: Burgas Municipality, Ministry of Education and Science, National Children’s Palace
SUBJECT: “If it weren’t for them…”
GENRE: Literary and Video Story
GENERAL PROVISIONS:
Center for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation “Alef” organizes the International Student Literary Competition “Whoever saves one human life, saves the whole universe” to draw the attention of students to the heroic act of saving the Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War war. The initiative was created to educate young people to strive for humanity, tolerance, combating anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism and hate speech.
The topic of each edition of the competition is different and it is related to a certain anniversary or a generally significant event in political and social life. The virtual library on Alef’s website provides materials on each of the announced topics which they can use for their creative works.
GOALS:
- Building a civic position in the spirit of tolerance, humanism and tolerance among young people;
- Prevention of hate speech, xenophobia and racism;
- Encouraging students’ interest in in-depth study and understanding of historical events and the significance of the act of saving Bulgarian Jews during the years of the Holocaust;
- Creating skills for studying and presenting historical events and facts through the concepts of literature;
- Discovering and stimulating the literary talent of students;
- Creating a feeling among young Bulgarians for unity between ethnic groups, education in democratic European values;
- Gaining experience to participate in public initiatives
GENRE #1 ELIGIBILITY: a literary story based on a historical event or person
High school students from Bulgaria and abroad in two categories:
- 15-18 years old students in secondary schools in Bulgaria
- 15-18 years old students in secondary schools in Europe and Israel
GENRE #2 ELIGIBILITY: A video story based on a historical event or person.
High school students from Bulgaria and abroad in two categories:
- 15-18 years old students in secondary schools in Bulgaria
- 15-18 years old students in secondary schools in Europe and Israel
REQUIREMENTS:
The participants must submit a fiction story in the applicant’s native language, written specifically for this contest. The literary work must not be published and must not participate into any other contests.
Candidates who have prepared a video story must send it in Bulgarian or in their native language – English subtitles must be added to it.
Everyone presents with only one work.
GUIDELINES:
In order to participate in the competition, students will have to use their imagination and recreate the dark years of the Holocaust, to tell about the persecuted Jewish population awaiting deportation to the death camps and to tell about the dignity and courage of the Bulgarians, which led to the unprecedented act of saving the Bulgarian Jews.
Using the art of storytelling or the cinematic tools at their disposal, students will craft a compelling narrative in the form of a video, shot by a mobile phone or amateur camera. This narrative will vividly depict the tumultuous era of the Second World War and celebrate the valor of heroic Bulgarians who acted as saviors. Narratives based on historical facts will be given preference. The jury will highly appreciate the research spirit of the authors – searching for eyewitnesses or their heirs, as well as the creative recreation of their memories.
The video stories are recommended to contain any of the following elements: individual memories, an interview on the topic, documenting a personal story, a video narrative of places where dramatic events took place during the Holocaust, flash mobs, artistic recreations, staged recreations of the topic etc.
VOLUME:
Literaty short story: Maximum 4 computer pages, Times New Roman font, 12 points.
Video story: It could be shot by a phone or amateur camera and it must be up to 5 minutes long.
Participants must also add their full name, full address for correspondence, phone number, e-mail address, as well as a short presentation of themselves.
DEADLINE:
The competition materials: literary short stories or video links must be sent to the following email adress: alef.competition@gmail.com
Start: October 1, 2024
Deadline: March 1, 2025
EVALUATION:
The works will be judged by an international jury. The jury will nominate 30 best participants from Bulgaria and abroad.
NOMINATED:
All nominees will be invited to the award ceremony in June 2025 in Burgas, Bulgaria at the expenses of the organizers.
The nominated short stories, as well as the video stories, will be published on the Alef’s website.
The nominated authors declare consent for the publication of their creative works or parts of them in Bulgarian media and in literary collections of Center “Alef”.
AWARDS:
The jury will announce the winners in three categories:
- for a literary short story – Bulgarian participants category
- for a literary short story- International participants category
- for a video short story – both Bulgarian and International category together
- Participation in the 3-day International Literary Youth Festival “Friendship – meaning and salvation” in Burgas, Bulgaria, in June 2025 at the expenses of the organizers.
- Participation in creative writing workshops with prominent writers and historians, screenings of documentaries dedicated to the Holocaust and the unique salvation of Bulgarian Jews, book presentations, exhibitions, literary readings and more.
- Participation in the solemn award ceremony of the competition “Whoever saves one human life, saves the whole universe” in June 2025 in Burgas at the expenses of the organizers.
- The award-winning short stories will be published in 2025 in a separate literary collection, published by the Center “Alef”, as well as on the website www.alef-bg.org
- Cash prizes and certificates for the best performing participants.
- The Bulgarian participants, ranked in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, will have the opportunity to receive a year-round state scholarships.
RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT:
- The nominated creative works will be announced on the website of the organizers alef-bg.org until April 1, 2025
- The results for the final ranking will be announced at a solemn award ceremony in Burgas in June 2025
*The prize fund is determined for each edition of the contest by the organizers.
*This regulation is published on the website of the organizers.
*The organizers reserve the right to make changes.
