Did you come to Finland as a refugee or as an asylum seeker? Write about your experiences when you had to flee your home country. In recent years, refugees’ and asylum seekers’ journeys to Europe have been frequently in the media, but not many refugees have been able to tell their own story. We want to collect and save these stories so that they will not be forgotten.

We would like to receive stories from people who have been on a refugee journey at different ages and in different periods of time. Your journey may have taken some hours or many years – we welcome all kinds of stories. You can write your story in your own language and style. The length of the texts is not restricted. We also accept photographs, recordings, videos, previous memoirs and interviews. Please only send material if you have the right and/or permission to send such material. We ask you to give consent for archiving the material in the SKS archive and for its use in accordance with the rules of the archive.

The main prize of the writing contest is EUR 500. In addition, there are three special recognition awards of EUR 200 each. The winners will be contacted and the results announced in autumn 2021.

The collection is organised by the Finnish Literature Society (SKS) and the project Refugee Journeys: Narratives of Forced Mobilities (University of Oulu) funded by the Academy of Finland.