Markets and Contests
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This page lists ongoing links of interest to young writers. For short-term contest listings, please visit our forums and click on "Markets and Contests."
Markets | Creative Writing Courses | General Links
Markets and Contests
Here's some links we found about calls for submission and contests for youth poetry. Some poetry contests from impressive-sounding organizations (The Library of Whatever Poetry) actually accept nearly all poems submitted, tell you your poem is outstanding and wonderful, and then pester you to buy expensive anthologies, plaques, etc. See the article vanity contests at the League of Canadian Poets webstore site for further information on the many kinds of poetry contests.
Please read the disclaimer below.
Uth Ink is a partnership between Playwrights Guild of Canada and [murmur]. "Community” themed plays created by youth will be recorded, posted on the web, and developed into site-specific theatre installations in communities across Canada.
Youth Action Forum is a national magazine published by and for youth. Forum's mandate is to be a place for young people to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences with other youth across Canada. Each issue is geared towards motivating and encouraging youth to educate themselves and be proactive in their communities.
deal.org is a national web site for youth that welcomes articles, poetry, artwork, fiction, editorials, photography, comic strips, music, video clips and anything else you can come up with! Their bilingual e-zine is written by youth, for youth under 29 years of age.
The Festival International de la Poésie invites Canadian secondary school students to take part in a yearly poetry contest.
The Poem Repair Shop is also a weekly radio show that airs on Guelph, Ontario's Community Radio, CFRU (available via web stream). The show is produced, in large part, by students. We welcome volunteers who wish to gain radio experience, young writers who wish to give voice to their writing, on air hosts, and collaborators.
RAMP, a gateway for Toronto teens, is looking for creative writing submissions for their "Express Yourself" web page.
Youthink, a monthly magazine written by high school students, seeks to connect teens from the Greater Vancouver area and to publish their writing and artwork. They have a special section for poetry and creative writing submissions.
Here's a big collection of links about all kinds of online contests (some for youth).
The Sheree Fitch Prize for Youth (alternates between prose and poetry each year).
The Claremont Literary Review features the work of young adults and holds an annual poetry contest.
The Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest
Teenink is a cool US e-zine that features the work of teens and invites contributions.
Wet Ink Magazine is a Canadian e-zine publishing the work of emerging writers ages 13-19. They also have a great links page with more info on markets, programs, and other resources for young writers.
New Moon Magazine is a girl positive (American) magazine written by and for girls ages 8-14. Their all girl editorial board accepts poetry and other forms of writing.
The Ishar Singh Poetry Contest for Youth, hosted by the Eden Mills Writers Festival in Eden Mills, Ontario, offers a number of categories and prizes.
What If? is a literary fiction magazine for ages 12 and up that publishes poetry, fiction, book reviews, and editorial pieces for the teen/young adult market. The magazine also hosts regular poetry contests and has the goal of becoming nationally distributed in schools.
NOTE: Neither www.youngpoets.ca nor the League of Canadian Poets endorse or recommend any specific contest mentioned in links given here. Read the rules carefully and consider entry fees and what you receive in return before entering any contest.
Creative Writing Programs and Courses
If you're serious about creative writing, you may want to look at degree-granting or other creative writing programs, on-line or during the summer. Below are links to a number of Canadian programs, some offering Bachelor's or Master's degrees, others with non-credit offerings.
There are lots in the US, too, but then you'd have to pay in American $$!
THE ELORA SCHOOL FOR YOUNG WRITERS (ONLINE) gives the aspiring writer, aged 12-19, the opportunity to work one-on-one with a published author on an authentic writing task (personal essay, article, screenplay, short story, first chapter, or group of poems) for up to three months. Courses are conducted online via email and secure weblog, allowing you to work at your own pace and in your favourite writing location."
Many local library and schools, and some creative writers on their own , host continuing education or other writing workshops, which can be very helpful to developing writers. Ask your library or local school board , or check local newspapers and magazines for listings of these. In the Toronto area, Word magazine is a good place to look.
The AWP Official Guide to Writing Programs . Descriptions of creative writing programs in the U.S., Canada and
the U.K. Information on conferences, colonies and centers for writers (Dustbooks). But the listsings are not online; you have to pay for the book.
Another well-known creative writing dept., at the University of Victoria in BC, offers both Bachelor's and Masters degrees. Uvic also offers a 15-unit postgraduate diploma for students with degrees (primarily in the Humanities and Social Sciences) who are looking for a professional credential that will lead to a career in writing and editing in journalism, publishing, government communication and corporate information services.
The Creative Writing Program at UBC also has both bachelor's and master's programs. It offers a two-year studio course of resident study in which apprentice writers are offered instruction by faculty who work in a variety of literary and dramatic forms. The program leads to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing or a joint degree with another department, in which Creative Writing serves as half of a double major.
York University has a Bachelor's program. The Creative Writing Program is an Honours BA Program offered by the Faculty of Arts.
In Montreal, Concordia University has a wide range of courses in literature and creative and professional writing. Creative options include a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Creative Writing and a Master of Arts in English with a Creative Writing option.
The Humber School for Writers in Toronto has some well-known correspondence and summer courses for creative writers.
Okanagan School for the Arts in B.C. offers a few summer courses in writing, although when I last checked, most of them were cancelled.
This looks interesting, and is a rare example of a writing workshop especially for high-schoolers:
Poetry and Art in Montreal: a creative arts
adventure for high school students. The program runs in early August and is a week-long intensive limited to eight participants. Tuition is $1000, though, and lodging and meals extra, so you may want to start saving your baby-sitting or lanwmowing money now for next summer.
Athabasca University (an online degree-granting institution) has a number of courses in writing.
General Links
We all know there's a ton of information on almost anything on the Internet. To save you a little time, we've found a few useful links about young people and poetry below. Happy virtual trails to you!
World Poetry Day, March 21, is a special day established by UNESCO to celebrate poetry around the world. Visit UNESCO's own web page. In Canada, the Candian Heritage Department has special events and activities for World Poetry Day here.
Original poetry and stories by kids aged 5 -18.
Creative Communication Inc.'s Celebration of Young Poets includes a contest..
An American theater company that performs kids' poetry and is looking for contributions...
The UK's Poetry Society pages for young poets. Includes a contest.
Wordwrights Canada maintains a "Writing Resources for Students" page on their site. This page includes links to contests and markets specifically for youth, including The Dorothy Livesay Competition, the Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Contest, the Cavendish Award for Young People, and many more.
There is also info here on contest basics and other useful advice.
The Sage Hill Writing Experience has a teen component open to Saskatchewan writers between the ages of 14 and 18. There is an application fee for the Moose Jaw Experience but no other tuition fees apply. Visit their
website.
Disclaimer: By Providing these links to other resources, neither www.youngpoets.ca nor the League of
Canadian Poets recommends any contests, publications, memberships or other offers made at these sites. These links are provided simply because they are for sites that may interest young poets and their teachers.