About the KISAH Futures Competition
themes. Stories had to be set in Malaysia and be plausible. We allocated 25 cash prizes each in two language categories, English and Bahasa Malaysia. The response was tremendous, with close to 700 submissions received in total. There were utopian and dystopian stories, with genres ranging from romance to science fiction. There were loved ones who had been wrenched away by the virus, as well as family members connecting through holographic transmissions or reuniting through time travel. There were detailed recounts of future events that followed the spread of the virus, and just as many mentions of drones, robots, heroic frontliners, vaccines and friendly food delivery people. Apart from encouraging writing talent, we the organisers hope that the KISAH Futures Competition has inspired all who wrote these stories to develop futures thinking skills—skills that are crucial as we continue to build and sustain life on this planet. As we continue our work after the competition to analyse the themes from the stories and take guidance from them in our respective areas of work, we also hope that the fire created and contained in this collection of stories will incite emotion and inspire action in our readers as well.
The KISAH Futures Competition was funded by UNDP Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
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