For Our Sisters is an international celebration of lyrical tribute writing, by young women aged 11-16, commissioned by Mulberry Schools Trust in 2026.
We set students the challenge to write a tribute to their sister, a sisterly figure, or a sisterhood in their lives, in any written style, and to do so with beauty and power, using a variety of literary techniques.
Applied Stories created a suite of online tutorial videos (also below) to help students find inspiration, choose a written style and get writing. The videos were supported by a folder of original resources: poetry, worksheets and questionnaires about your sister, for schools to use with a group of their choice at a time which suited them.
We received hundreds of entries from 21 schools as far afield as Mexico, Malaysia, India, Kenya, the United States, Australia, Wales, London, Bexhill and Hastings.
Sixty winners have had their work immortalised in a new anthology, available to download for free below, with six audio recorded in the playlist above.
The online resources which supported the project remain online below as legacy, although entries to the competition for this year have now closed.
Advice from Fin on choosing your written style and arranging your material.
A demonstration of some useful literary techniques and their effects, along with some close textual analysis of some existing poems.
See also:
Analysing Real by Maryam Nasir
Interviews with some inspiring female writers and how they got into it.
Videos referenced:
Sharmila and Yusra:
Where did you grow up and how did it influence you?
Where do you find inspiration?
Erinn Dhesi:
How did writing start for you?
Mel Pennant:
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