Do you know a middle school or high school student who likes to write?
EPIC, Electronically Published Internet Connection, established the annual New Voices writing competition to encourage reading and writing among middle school and high school students and to promote e-book literacy.
The contest is open to students in junior high or high school in public, private, or home schools anywhere in the world as long as entries are submitted in English. There is no fee to enter.
Categories include Middle School (grades 7-8) and High School (grades 9-12), with sub-categories in Short Story (fiction), Poetry, and Essay (nonfiction). Each student may submit one entry per sub-category for his or her grade level.
All the entries are judged by a panel of judges, including teachers, librarians, published writers, publishers, and editors. All entrants will receive feedback from the first-round judging panel, with the finalists moving to a second-round judging panel.
I chaired the New Voices Contest committee for the first two years and am excited about how the contest has grown. Some teachers assign their classes writing projects and then submit the best of the students’ work to the contest. The teachers have told us that the critiques by industry professionals, which encourage the young writers and help them improve their craft, are more important to the students than the prizes.
Winners in each category (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, Honorable Mentions, and Judges’ Awards) receive prizes including cash, e-book readers, and gift certificates for e-books in addition to publication in an anthology New Voices 2008.
The anthology is distributed free as a download on the EPIC Web site and on CDs at the EPIC conference. Winners receive CDs of the anthology, and their school libraries receive both CDs and print copies.
New Voices 2007 is still available for free download. I think you’ll enjoy reading the stories, poems, and essays by these talented young writers.
You will find guidelines and entry forms for New Voices 2008 on the EPIC Web site. Please pass the information about the contest on to individuals, schools, writing groups … young writers and anywhere they can be found. You just might help start a teen writer on the road to writing success.
[tags]EPIC, New Voices Writing Competition, student writing contest[/tags]