Volunteer to Help and Encourage Young Writers
November 3, 2008 by Lillie
The EPIC New Voices Writing Competition is a project dear to my heart. I, along with a few other EPIC members, started the contest in 2006, and I chaired the competition for the first two years.
EPIC is gearing up to start accepting entries in this year’s competition, and the organization needs volunteer judges. Teachers, librarians, published authors, editors, and publishers are eligible to judge. In the first round, judges complete a score sheet for each entry including constructive commentary and positive encouragement.
The entries are short: a maximum of 750 words in the short story and essay categories and a maximum of 20 lines in the poetry category. Judging won’t take much time, but it will encourage high school and middle school writers and help them improve their skills. I’ve written about how early feedback on my writing made a huge difference to me. By judging in the New Voices contest, you can make a huge difference to a young person who loves to write.
For more information or to volunteer, download the judge application form.
Soon I’ll be posting a link to the guidelines for young writers to enter the contest. If you have a child, grandchild, teenage relative, high school friend, or young neighbor who likes to write, please share the information.
cool. am unable to volunteer as i’m way over here, unfortunately.
but i think that any initiative which seeks to encourage young writers is a great thing. it just is really helpful to someone who’s just starting out to receive some form of affirmation, especially if that’s from people who’ve been writing for some time already.
kouji´s last blog post..obama mccain american election haiku poem
kouji,
EPIC is an international organization, and judges (and student entries) can come from anywhere in the world. All the entries are received and sent to judges electronically so it doesn’t matter where you are. The only stipulations are that judges be published authors, teachers, librarians, editors, or publishers and that entries be submitted and judged in English.
Hmm…, it sounds like an interesting platform for the novice writers to polish their writing skill, Lillie.
I, myself, love to write those magic fiction stories when I’m have free time, but I don’t think I’m qualify for the contest
wilson´s last blog post..The Hair Care Tips 4: The Speed of Hair Growth is Not Related With the Frequency of The Hair Cut!
wilson,
You don’t qualify unless you’re a junior high or high school student.
Good luck with this project. I’m pleased to note that young writers are being encouraged, instead of the opposite, which for far too long, has been the impression I’ve had from publishers.
Mark Antony´s last blog post..Culver Hall
Mark Antony,
Young—and not-so-young—aspiring writers don’t usually get encouragement from publishers. New Voices is a great project because it encourages while it teaches. Judges don’t just say the work is good; they both compliment specific things and point out things that need to be improved.
Sounds great! I want to experienced this kind of competitions.But I want to be a volunteer.Thanks for sharing this article with us.
Volunteers to judge this contest need to be teachers, librarians, writers, or editors. If you don’t fall into one of those categories, there are many other opportunities to volunteer to help young people.
[...] entrant is a winner, though, because each receives valuable feedback from the judges, who are teachers, librarians, published authors, and editors. The feedback includes positive [...]