What:  Contest for Young Writers Ages 10 to 18
When: Deadline is August 15, 2008
Cost: FREE — NO Entry Fee
Prizes:1st, 2nd, 3rd Place, and Honorable Mentions will be selected for Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry in each category; First place winners will be published in the November Delaware Beach Life magazine.
Categories:
Middle School Students, ages 10 to [...]

Former WITS writer and staff member Rebecca Flowers just published her first novel, NICE TO COME HOME TO. The book, published by Riverhead Books, is based on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. If you’re into reading about the writing process, check out Rebecca’s essay, “Totally Unsolicited Advice for Writers,” on the process of writing [...]

The Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award is open to all high school students across the country. Each young writer may submit two poems on any subject and in any form as long as their submission does not exceed 10 pages in length. The deadline for entering this annual contest is June 1st.
The award was established [...]

The Houston Chronicle is one of the sponsors of A Poem a Day this year. In addition to promoting this celebration of Houston kids during National Poetry Month, they have also provided a forum for anyone to share their original poems with a wider audience. If reading all these poems has brought out the [...]

Poet and second-year WITS Writer Kent Shaw has some big news. His poems have arrived in the form of a book.
Calenture, winner of the Tampa Review Prize, is Kent Shaw’s first book of poems, and it was released March 17. According to one of the judges who chose Shaw’s book, “[In] Calenture, Shaw teaches [...]

GirlSpeak is a pro-woman, web-based literary and visual art magazine that provided a platform for young women and male allies ages 12-22. They showcase original work by an international readership.
GirlSpeak is a respectful, diverse, and empowered space, as well as a reference for everyday life. We aspire to model self-knowledge, awareness of the [...]

Ready to share your writing with a larger audience?  The NewPages Blog has created an excellent list of publishing venues for young writers.
(illustration from Henri’s Walk to Paris by Saul Bass via flickr)

“The Mohawks,” a poem by former WITS Writer Joshua Rivkin, was named the Poem of the Week by the Missouri Review. When asked about the genesis of the poem, Josh explained it this way:
Last year I taught 9th and 10th grade English. This poem is one of several about my students who [...]

Brian Beard’s poem “Earth to Sky” appears in the most recent issue of The Red Rock Review. Usually our “Writer in the Limelight” series features the writers who teach with WITS. This is different. Brian Beard is not a writer teaching for WITS but a teacher (at Bellaire High School in Houston) [...]

Save the Whales is sponsoring a poetry writing contest for kids (ages 13 and under). If you want to enter this contest, please keep these things in mind:

The poem must be about whales.
The poem must be your own original work.
Remember to give your poem a title.
The winning poems will be published in a [...]