High school students will have the opportunity to test their storytelling abilities in the contest. The winner will receive 30,000 rubles (~430 USD).
From December 20 to January 20, 66.RU, in collaboration with Mikhail Shelkov’s Empathy Foundation, is organizing the “Letters from Strangers” contest in support of the first Ural selection for the Gifted Girls & Brainy Boys Olympiad, which will take place in 2023.
Despite Mikhail Bulgakov’s recommendation “never to talk to strangers,” we invite students from grades 10-11 to write a short story (up to 2500 characters with spaces) and send it to us. Let’s get acquainted in the process.
We do not limit you in terms of theme and genre; the main condition is that the story should intrigue anyone. Mikhail Bulgakov certainly knew a thing or two about this, so we suggest drawing inspiration from the works of the author, such as “The Master and Margarita” and “Notes of a Young Doctor.”
“Manuscripts do not burn,” wrote Bulgakov, and we say, “Social media posts do not burn.” Therefore, we will be waiting for your stories on VKontakte. Simply publish your work with the hashtags #УмиУмУрал and #Эмпатия66RU to automatically become a participant in the contest.
By January 30, 2023, experts from the Empathy and Golden Ratio foundations, together with the author of the novels “Petrov in the Grippe and Around It” and “Occulttrager,” Alexey Salnikov, will review all the entries and select the top 3.
The authors of the three best texts will receive prizes from Mikhail Shelkov’s Empathy Foundation:
Once again, here are the conditions of the “Letters from Strangers” contest:
Who can participate: students from grades 10-11 (if you are in the 8th or 9th grade but have already read Bulgakov’s novels, you are welcome to join us, so go ahead and write).
We look forward to receiving your works!