The Ottawa Public Library's annual Youth Writing Contest -- Awesome Authors -- is underway! If you're an Ottawa resident between the ages of 9 and 18, sharpen your pencils or boot up your computer because it's time to get writing and drawing. Awesome Authors honours the very best poems, stories, and comics in English and French… Continue reading Awesome Authors 2020
There's a new source of funding for author visits to English-language Quebec schools: ArtistsInspire. The program administers federal funding for minority language education. Through ArtistsInspire, schools receive full funding to invite authors, artists, or other culture creators to engage their students in the arts. All English-language schools in Quebec are entitled to $1500 per year… Continue reading Writing Workshops
Dozens of young writers in Ottawa will attend their book launch next week, as the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) launches the latest volume of Pot-pourri. Pot-pourri 2019 features all the winners and honourable mentions from this year's Awesome Authors contest -- that's dozens of the best poems, short stories, and comics… Continue reading Book Launch of Pot-pourri 2019
Every year, the Ottawa Public Library holds a youth writing contest for which hundreds of local kids write stories, poems, and comics. The winners and honourable mentions are published in the annual anthology, Pot-pourri. But the contest's title -- Awesome Authors -- applies to all of those who enter. The contest deadline for 2019 has… Continue reading Awesome Authors 2019 – Decision Time
I’ll be giving a writing workshop tomorrow at the Carlingwood Library to help kids aged 9-12 prepare their stories for the Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors Contest. We’ll do two story-building exercises: one on Character, and one on Setting. For those who can’t be there, here is my Setting handout, with a short version of… Continue reading Young Writers Workshop: Setting Exercise
Catherine Austen 