Calling Middle School and High School Writers
December 10, 2008 by Lillie
EPIC’s annual New Voices contest is open for submissions until January 16, 2009. Middle and high school students in any school (public, private, or home) in the world are eliglble to enter as long as their entry is in English.
Categories for Middle School and High School include Story (fictional short story). Poetry, and Essay (nonfiction). The New Voices guidelines describe each category.
The prizes includes a grand prize of $100, e-book readers for first place winners in each category, and $50 and $25 gift certificates for e-books for second and third place winners.
Every 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 encouragement and suggestions for improvement.
While every writer, no matter our age or experience, benefits from constructive feedback, young writers in particular need encouragement and advice. Students get input from their teachers and perhaps their families but seldom have the chance to receive individual and objective commentary from industry professionals.
Students can enter pieces written for school assignments or personal expression as well as those written specifically for the contest. If you know a young student who likes to write and who could benefit from professional evaluation of their writing, encourage them to enter the New Voices 2009 competition.
If you are an educator, consider assigning your students to write stories, poems, or essays they can enter in the contest. If you’re someone who would like to see writing encouraged in the schools, pass the information along to the schools in your area.
The New Voices competition is special to me. Along with a few other EPIC members, I was one of the founders of the contest, and I have participated every year in some capacity, this year as a judge.
I have seen the enthusiasm of young writers who receive a word of encouragement from a writer or an editor. I have seen the excitement of the winners when the receive their awards. I know that I’ll see some of these students when they are adults and successful, published authors.
Thanks, Lillie! I’m going to encourage my daughter to enter this!
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Renae,
I hope your daughter enters. This is a great opportunity for kids to get feedback and encouragement.
Starting early to write in Middle School is great. Hopefully, it will carry over later in life and more great authors will be published.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://www.morganmandel.com
Morgan,
We’ve had kids enter several years in a row. Some of those kids have placed almost every year. I’m sure we’ll be seeing their names on book covers in a few years.
Thank you for the information, Lillie. I’m forwarding it to my daughter who teaches middle school. We’ve already written a book together with her former students: What Our Parents Should Know, Advice From Teens.
Jean,
Thanks for speading the word, Jean.
I saw the book of advice from teens on your Web site but didn’t know the story behind it. That’s a great concept.
This is sooooo cool! My kids aren’t quite old enough yet – but I do have some blog friends with kids in these age brackets – is it okay if I post on my blog to get the word out?
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Merry,
Please do post on your blog! We are trying to get the word out to as many kids as possible.
Thanks for sharing…
I think my sister can give it a try…
Anyway, this event is new to me since we are from Singapore.
Nasia,
Do encourage your sister to enter. We have had entries from Singapore, and I believe someone from Singapore was a winner last year.
WoW, it’s a great opportunity to me, Lillie and I’ll certainly join it! Wait…, it mentions that it only good for middle and high school, I was already over-aged! lol
It seems I need to pass this again…
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wilson,
Too bad you can’t participate, but please spread the word to any middle or high school students you know.
This indeed is a very nice concept to encourage young authors. Are there separate prizes for different age groups?
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lilla,
Yes, there are prizes for two age groups: junior high and high schoo, and there is one grand prize for the best of both age groups. There are first, second, and third prizes in each category in each age group, which is six e-book, cash, or gift certificate prizes for each age group, plus the grand prize ($100 cash). There are other categories of winners (honorable mention and judges award) who receive certificates, have their winning entries published in the anthology, and get a free copy of the anthology.
Well guess I missed out on this year. I will have to put in on the calendar for next year (for my son..I am a little too old for the competition!) Thanks Lillie
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Daniel,
If your son has something he wrote for school that fits the criteria, he can still send it in by the end of the day tomorrow. Otherwise, there’s always next year.
i would have loved if my kids participated in the contest but its late now nevermind would definitely give a try for the next contest.Its great that they r doing the contests and wish them all the best.
Ebook (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, you would get your keyword link, and I could address you as a real person),
Too bad your kids missed this, but there’s always next year.
My next project as soon as I finish responding to comments is to finish the New Voices contest entries assigned to me to judge. This is the end of the first round of judging; the finalists will be determined by the scores from this round. They will go through another round of judging, and the scores from that round will determine the winners. Each entry is judged by three different judges in each round.
Very useful for kids , they can gain lot of knowledge from this , great job done and looking forward for the coming event.
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Shaw,
This year’s contest is over. The judging has just been completed but the winners haven’t been announced yet. The contest will be held again next year so if you know junior high and high school students, let them know about it.
Yes we will definitely let them know abt the contest , since its very useful for kids and its a very good work done ,thanks Lillie for your support.
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Thanks, Sharon. We appreciate everyone who helps spread the word.
It just takes few minutes to spread the word and we all are with you ,we will support you Lillie, as this blog is very useful for not only my kids but as well as others.
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Thank you, Lyndsey. I appreciate your support and kind words.
This contest sounds great. Though my son is too young to enter just yet, I remember when I was (much) younger & entered in these sort of things. The difference with your contest is that you provide feedback – which is much better than the usual ‘no response’ that usually happens when you don’t win a competition.
Jim,
I think the feedback is one of the best things about New Voices. Teachers sometimes encourage students to enter for the feedback alone—winning is an added bonus for those who place.
What a great way for students to use their writing skills and creativity! I am a high school teacher so I know how important it is to encourage students of all ages, it is so rewarding to hear them talk about how much they enjoyed writing assignments. I look forward to our high school reunions, nothing compares to the success stories of my former students who became writers thanks to some teacher and parent encouragement.
high school (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
I have great admiration for teachers. I tried substitue teaching for a short while and found it wasn’t for me!
Please help spread the word about this annual writing competition. Several teachers give writing assignments to their classes and encourage students to enter the best work. They really appreciate the feedback the kids get.
We have brochures for teachers; if you have an interest and a way to distribute them to fellow teachers, I’ll be glad to see that you get some.
I think this is a great thing to get involved and because I definitely wish that I had more opportunities at that age and didn’t start writing so late.
C,
Although it would be great that you had started writing earlier, it’s good that you’re writing now.
High school writers has a lot of ideas and experience .. They have many crazy and unpredictable experience .. so they will make a great blogger
Richard,
The contest is for short stories, essays, and poems, not blogging. But if they are good writers, they would probably make good bloggers.
[...] poems, essays, and short stories to the contest between August 1 and October 20, 2010. As the founding chair of this competition, I strongly encourage young writers to participate for a chance to win great prizes and, perhaps [...]