YouthWrites

More than 1500 students entered the 2009 YouthWrites contest. The overall winner was Alyson Kissner, a grade 11 student from West Vancouver Secondary School. Read the winning submission, The City. At the beginning of a class period, students were given the following words: compost, Skytrain, Facebook, sob, what if, labyrinth. They had to write any form of prose, poetry, short story, screenplay etc. within the class period, using all those words.

Grade 8: The Internet by Rose Gallo

Grade 9 (tie): by Erik Jacobson

Grade 9 (tie): by Liam Lawrence

Grade 10: Listen by Kathy Wang

Grade 12: Flight by Lincoln Welsh

2009 YouthWrites winner Alyson Kissner with authors Susin Nielsen, Don Calame and Robyn Harding. Photo: Chris Cameron

Enter your students in YouthWrites - a writing contest for grades 8-12 Lower Mainland secondary school students. Teachers will receive a list of pre-selected words to give to their students in class. Students must use all the words in their prose or poetry or spoken word piece. They must complete and submit their handwritten work at the end of the class. Teachers will select the top three entries from each class to submit to the contest. Winners will have a behind-the-scenes experience at Youthink Magazine and a writing session with magazine editors. Prizes also include a collection of books from Canadian publishers and the top prize winner receives a class set of tickets to an event at the 2010 Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. For more information or to register for the 2010 YouthWrites contest, contact education@writersfest.bc.ca or call Ilona Beiks at 604-215-9726.

YouthWrites is produced in partnership with Youthink Magazine.