Young Writers: Hurry to Enter New Voices
October 9, 2009 by Lillie
The deadline for New Voices, EPIC’s writing competition for teen writers is October 20, 2009. Students can enter poetry, short stories, and essays for cash prizes for winners and feedback for every entrant.
You want to enter your best work, which means giving yourself plenty of time to edit.The deadline is only a couple of weeks away, so if you haven’t already started, now is the time. If you’re the parent, teacher, friend, or loved one of a student interested in writing, please tell them about this opportunity.
You will find guidelines and the entry form on the New Voices Web site.
Lillie, any idea on the no of participants enrolled so far? Just curious to know how well it is perceived by aspirants.
.-= Mack@Las Vegas Foreclosures´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble =-.
No, Mack. I’ve involved in the lining up judges, not receiving entries. Typically in the past, we have received about 100 entries.
Thanks for the headsup – just sent this information to several brilliant teen writers.
.-= Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach ´s last blog ..INTENSE Guerrilla Marketing examples =-.
Thanks, Barbara! I appreciate your spreading the word.
Seems to be a super cool competition for school going kids. The most attractive part is that its open for participants from worldwide. I will spread it across NZ folks and I am sure kids over here are equally interested to participate. Its my bad that I noticed this very late. Just 10 days left
.-= Girish@Car Rental Auckland´s last blog ..Rugby World Cup Car Rentals =-.
Girish,
Thanks for spreading the word. I hope you get some young folks interested in entering. The entries don’t have to be written specifically for the competition, so if they have some things they have written that fit the criteria or can be edited to fit the criteria, they can enter those.
Not long left now..! It might be too late by I will pass on this link to my two sisters, they are always on the look out for this sort of thing. Thanks!
.-= Dave´s last blog ..What is LinkedIn? =-.
Dave,
There’s a little over a week left—enough time for someone who is seriously interested to enter. They can use something they’ve already written, perhaps editing it a little to fit the word limits.
Lillie, I have added your blog’s feed to my reader so that I do not miss such valuable information anymore. My friend’s son has incredible passion for story telling and screen writing. I will pass on to him and let me see what he can do in a short span of 7 days.
Regards,
Alan Rosson
Alan,
I hope your friend’s son can get his entry in on time.
Teens only? Oh well at that age creativity is still fresh. That’s where you get to know who’s got the right writing skills and who’s just having a hobby.
Eji,
There are plenty of writing contests around for adult writers, but there aren’t many for teens. And this is really special because the students get feedback from professional writers.
I must get this over to my sister-in-law immediately for my nephew to enter the contest. I love contests like this as they can really challenge our youth and who knows he might win.
I sure hope you post the results!
Al
Al,
I hope your nephew enters and wins. There are quite a few prizes: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, honorable mention, and judges’ awards in each of the three categories (and there can be more than one honorable mention and judges’ award) plus the grand prize winner.
The winners are posted on the EPIC Web site. All the winning entries are also published in an anthology. In the past some of the winners have received quite a bit of publicity in their local newspapers and other media.
The best thing is that every student who enters is a winner in this regard: every entrant receives critiques from three judges, all of whom are writers, editors, teachers, and/or librarians. The judges are required to include positive encouragement as well as areas to improve.
I think 100 entries is pretty impressive, and it’s great to hear that young people are actually interested in writing. There are many modern opportunities for writers, especially since there is so much content needed online!
C,
I don’t think we’ve had that many yet, but in years past most of the entries have come in right at the deadline. So we’ll probably get a lot more today.
Hello,
So are there any results on the outcome of this?
Thanks!
.-= Tom@Christian Gifts´s last blog ..Cross Gifts =-.
Tom,
It will be several months before the awards are announced. The entries will go to the judges later this week, and a panel of three judges has several weeks to judge. Then they return the scores, and those scores are evaluated to select the highest-scoring entries as finalists. Then there is another round of judging to select the winners from the finalists.
The judges just evaluate and score each entry, then the coordinators have to do the math to consolidate all the scores and determine the winners. So it’s a time-consuming process.
You can’t expect the contest to end one week and winners to be announced the next.
Great that someone is promoting this. I teach at a community college, and with the cuts, real written art tends to be put on the back burner. Kudos!
.-= Ko@hollister ca homes for sale´s last blog ..Buying Tips For Your First Hollister Ca Home =-.
Thanks, Ko. This is really a great opportunity for kids interested in writing.
How did you get started in this? Are you a teacher?
.-= ko@hollister ca homes for sale´s last blog ..Foreclosed Homes For Sale =-.
Ko,
No, I’m not a teacher. I tried substitute teaching for a short time, and it was a disaster.
I’m not sure where the original idea came from—whether I thought of it or someone suggested it. But I know how much beginning writers need encouragement, and kids even more so. As an advocate of electronic publishing, I also wanted to educate kids about e-books. So this contest seemed the ideal way to do both. Another writer and I started it for the organization, and it’s really grown since then.
Good luck to all! When will the results be announced?
anthony,
The results will be announced before the EPIC conference next March. Winners are invited to attend the conference to receive their prizes, but prizes are shipped to winners who can’t attend.
terrific, hopefully there is some great quality and the kids have fun writing them! good experience
.-= anthony@fifa world cup´s last blog ..Christiano Ronaldo ruled out of world cup qualifiers for Portugal =-.
anthony,
I hope the same things: great entries and fun for the kids as well as encouragement and education for the students.
I’m a teacher myself and find this a great help and have let my kids know about it. Thnanks
Max,
I hope you told your students about the contest before the deadline, and I hope that some of them entered … and win.
May I see the result of the contest? If would be great if you could make another post for this.
Kelvin,
You’ll have to follow the link to the contest’s Web site for the winners. It’s highly unlikely any of my readers would know the teenagers from around the world who won one of a half dozen awards in the 10 different categories, and thus, a post listing them would be of little interest. I post things that I think will interest or benefit people who come here. Posting about the contest is worthwhile because many of my readers may have children or grandchildren or relatives or friends who would like to enter. Posting the winners would be of interest only to those relatively few people who know the people involved or who might be excited to see someone from their region or country listed as a winner.
Teens only? Oh well at that age creativity is still fresh. That’s where you get to know who’s got the right writing skills and who’s just having a hobby
marazm,
There are many, many writing contests for adults. This gives an opportunity for teens who like to write to get some professional feedback on their work.
[...] LinkedIn [...]