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WELCOME TO THE LITMUS!

The Litmus was launched at Trinity in 2020 as an opportunity for year 9-11 students attending state school (or on a full scholarship to a fee-paying school) in the UK to submit a short piece of writing of under 500 words in poetry, prose or any other format (including artwork) based around a theme for publication.

The past seven years has seen a brilliant response to the themes of ‘in common’ , ‘the green light’, ‘the writing on the wall‘, ‘over the border‘, ‘hostile environment‘, ‘word power’  and ‘are you for real?’ where we received hundreds of creative, original submissions from young people all over the UK, based on prompts announced by acclaimed author Ali Smith.

All of the entries are published online – explore this website of over 1000 entries. In addition, a printed volume of 50 submissions, selected by Ali Smith, was produced each year. Copies are held at Trinity College Library and at Cambridge University Library.

Email [email protected] with any questions, or to withdraw or change your submission.