Ottawa’s Awesome Authors Contest

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Catherine Austen

‘Tis the season for the Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Author Contest! Local writers aged 9-17 have a couple of months to shine up their best poems and stories for the 2016 competition.

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If your work is already shiny, you can enter it right now. If you want some professional help in polishing your words — or digging up words to polish — sign up for one of these Awesome Authors Youth Writing Workshops hosted by the library:

Ages 9-12 Poetry Workshop with J.C. Sulzenko on January 22 at 10:30 a.m. in the Beaverbrook Branch
Ages 9-12 Fiction Workshop with Catherine Austen (i.e., me) on January 22 at 2:00 p.m. in the Carlingwood Branch
Ages 9-12 Workshop en francais with Michel Lavoie on January 29 at 1:00 in the Gloucester North Branch
Ages 13-17 Poetry and Fiction Workshop with Caroline Pignat on February 13 at 2:00 p.m. in the Greenboro Branch
Ages 13-17 Workshop en francais with Michel Lavoie on February 6 at 2:00 p.m. in the St. Laurent Branch

The Awesome Authors Writing Contest runs from December 1st 2015 through February 15th 2016. You can submit your entry in person at your local library branch or enter online from the comfort of home — but, either way, please pay attention to the contest rules. You must have an Ottawa Public Library card to enter — so dig around to find yours or get a new card.

The four authors leading the writing workshops just happen to be the judges of the competition. We’ll be reading every entry in our age and genre category and choosing the winning pieces in February next year. (So if you enter in December, don’t ask me if I read your story before February, because the answer’s no.) I’ll be reading the English short stories submitted by writers aged 9-12 — a very popular category judging by previous years’ submissions. I’ll have a lot of fun reading come February.

Each category will have a first, second and third place winner and up to three honourable mentions. An award ceremony to honour the winning writers will be held in March. And it’ll be a blast. So if you are a young writer in the Ottawa area, sign up for a workshop or pick up your pen right now and start writing something awesome.

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