Birlikte is a short story competition, that will be held in two languages (German and Turkish in 2026, German and Kurdish in 2027) and is open to participants of all ages. The aim is to create a space for literary production and exchange, particularly for workers in Vienna and beyond, across the whole of Austria, where they can express their experiences, daily lives, struggles, emotions and visions for the future in their own words. Stories about migration, work, economic crises, inequality and war are often conveyed from the outside, from a detached perspective and in simplistic representations. Birlikte counters this with a participatory narrative practice by consciously transferring narrative authority to those who experience these things first-hand, thereby strengthening diversity and participation in cultural representation. Through a series of events and workshops in the run-up to the project, the initiative aims to create a space for encounter and getting to know one another, in which personal stories meet collective memory,individual experiences become shared narratives through sharing, and these shared narratives in turn deepen and strengthen individual voices.