July 2007
Welcome to Kids Write, a monthly online magazine for young writers and illustrators (18 years and younger) which provides
• up-to-date information about writing competitions
• writing markets
• writing festivals
• writing and illustrating hints
• monthly writing competitions
• interviews with adult authors and illustrators who provide tips on writing
and publishing
• interviews with prize-winning young writers
• book reviews
The magazine is compiled by Children’s Author and Editor Dianne (Di) Bates who you can read about on her website www.enterprisingwords.com
If you want to subscribe, the cost is $30 per year ($3.00 per issue). You can send a money order or cheque (payable to Di Bates) to PO Box 2116, Woonona East NSW 2517. Or you can write to Di at dibates@enterprisingwords.com for details about how to pay online.
Kids Write will be emailed to you on the first day of every month.
Your friend in words,
Di
CURRENT WRITING COMPETITIONS
Note: A number of arts festivals’ around Australia offer writing competitions for young writers. Where these are known, they are included below. A very helpful site to locate even more writing competitions for young people is www.cultureandrecreation.gov.ua/news/awardsandannouncements REMEMBER: before submitting entries, make sure that the competition is still running, and that you satisfy all of the entry requirements. Some competitions might ask for an entry fee: if they do and you wish to enter, send either a money order or a cheque. Never send cash! To get further details, double click on underlined headings.
CLOSING DATE: 6/7/07
Australian Catholics Young Journalist Award
Open to Australian secondary
school students. Two sections: Junior (word count up to 500) and Senior
(up to 700 words). This award is about encouraging you, as a student,
to engage with the world around you, to get to know new people and places,
and write about what you learn. The award is open to students in Years
7 to 12, and the winners will have their stories published in the Spring
edition of Australian Catholics. The judges will be looking for stories
that are well-written and have obviously involved some interviews or
research in putting them together. They’ll be looking for stories that involve
interesting subjects, and which tell a story rather than argue a point. The winner
of the senior section will receive $500 and the runner up $250. The winner of
the junior section will receive $300, and the runner up $200. The winning schools
in the senior and junior section will both receive $750.
CLOSING DATE 21/07/06
2007 Literary Competition
Sponsored by Queensland Independent Education Union (QIEU), English Teachers'
Association of Queensland, The Courier Mail and the Department of Education
and the Arts (entry form and poster on QIEU site). Limit of 5 entries
per category per school. Write a poem, short story and/or non-fiction
prose. Four age groups can enter: Years 11 & 12, Years 9 & 10, Year 8 and Years 6 & 7. This competition
includes a Shakespeare category for year 11 and 12 writers.
CLOSING DATE 28/07/07
4th annual Ipswich Poetry Feast International Poetry Competition
For young people aged 5 to 17 (and open categories). No line limit for
open theme and family theme.
CLOSES 31/07/07
QANTAS Spirit of Youth Awards
SOYA awards cash prizes, free travel and mentorships to young people
(25 and under) in seven different creative categories, including words.
Entries (max. 3000 words) for writing component (fiction, creative non-fiction,
prose, poetry, letters, stories, raves, diary entries) open until 31
July.
CLOSING DATE 31/07/07
Gippsland Short Story Competition
2007 Primary and secondary students' sections. Word count - up to 1500
words. For details and entry form, go to http://www.wgrlc.vic.gov.au/site/showpage_t1.asp?pid=181&cid=43 Australian Children's Music Foundation National Songwriting Competition
Various categories for Primary and Special Needs Schools, and Secondary Schools.
For more information, go to
http://www.acmf.com.au/competition.asp
KIDS WRITE COMPETITIONS
CLOSING DATE 15/8/07
Section One: For ages under 9 years
Section Two: For ages 9 to 12 years
Section Three: For ages 13 to 18 years
Write a poem, no longer than 20 lines about a personal experience. This could be as intense as your parents separating or a death in the family, or as trivial as shopping or going to the dentist.
Winners and runners-up in all thee sections will receive a certificate of achievement and their work will be published in the August issue of Kids Write! The entry which is judged the best for that writer’s age will win a selection of books to the value of $100. Only one prize will be awarded.
Email your entry to dibates@enterprisingwords.com with the subject heading KIDS WRITE COMPETITION. Make sure you include the section you are entering, as well as your name, date of birth and postal address (this can be your school, if you wish.)
WINNING ENTRIES Winning entries of the above competition will be printed in this section next month
PRIZE-WINNING YOUNG WRITERS
Have
you recently won a state, national or international writing award and
you are 18 years or younger? If yes, please write to dibates@enterprisingwords.com
with your name, age and a few particulars. Di Bates will contact you
via email for an interview in a future issue of Kids Write!
MAGAZINE
AND EZINE MARKETS
Sadly, there are only a few magazines in Australia
which are solely for the publication of work by young writers. However,
a number of other magazines and websites exist which provide limited
space for poems, stories, etc. Competition for publication generally
is fierce, so give your contribution a good chance by making sure it
is cleanly typed, double spaced, on a single side of A4 paper. Include
a large self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage for the return
of your manuscript. Always state your name, age, and address on each
piece of work.
Most magazines have small staffs, so you may have a long wait until your work is either returned or accepted for publication. Lack of funds often means that a magazine is forced to disappear. You can assist the magazine to continue publication by taking out an annual individual or family subscription.
Every month Kids Write! will feature 2-3 magazines or ezines.
Victorian Department of Education
school quarterly magazines
They are Comet (aged 6 -9 years), Challenge (10 -12 years), Explore
(8 - 10 years), Pursuit (12 - 16 years). They include letters, jokes,
drawings and also offer the annual Young Aussie Writers’ Awards for ages
8 - 16 years. Poetry, prose and non-fiction (including scientific writing).
Deadline: end of July. PO Box 258, Prahran VIC 3181. Phone (03) 9525
2184. http://www.pearsoned.com.au/Schools/magazines/default.asp
Voiceworks is a quarterly literary magazine for young writers and artists. It accepts articles, short stories, poems, cartoons, photography and drawings. It also invites submissions for anthologies. Express Media, 1st floor, 156 George Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065. Phone (03) 9416 3305. Fax (03) 9419 3365. http://www.expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks.php Email: info@expressmedia.org.au
The Helix is one of the magazines of CSIRO's Double Helix Science Club. The Helix has been Australia's premier science education magazine since 1986. Written to appeal to ages ten and above, the bi-monthly magazine, The Helix, covers topics from astronomy and the environment to entomology and chemistry. Feature-length articles, competitions and hands-on experiments will excite and inspire those with an interest in science and the world around them. The Helix magazine is packed with feature-length articles, competitions and hands-on experiments to excite and inspire The Helix magazine is available by joining the CSIRO’s Double Helix Science Club, or at selected newsagents Australia-wide. http://www.csiro.au/resources/pps98.html
OPPORTUNITIES
WRITING WORKSHOPS
If you are keen to attend a writing workshop, you might like to contact
your state’s library: write to the Children’s Librarian to ask if and
when workshops are held. You can also contact your local Writers’ Centre
(there are Writers’ Centres
all over Australia).
You can also ask your schools’ English teacher about getting together lunchtime or after school writing workshops at school.
If you know of any writing workshops that other kids’ writers would like to attend, please send details to dibates@enterprisingwords.com and they will be publicised in Kids Write!
ATTENTION YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS!
The Australian Theatre for Young People conducts writing workshops for
young people. The theatre is located at The Wharf, Pier 4-5, Hicks Road,
Walsh Bay, NSW 2000. Phone (02) 9251 3900. Fax (02) 9251 3909. http://www.atyp.com.au/ Email: atyp@atyp.com.au
YOUR LETTERS
Do you have a favourite author or book? Do you want to share some information
about writing? Do you want to comment on Kids Write!? You are welcome
to email a letter for your online magazine c% dibates@enterprisingwords.com
INTERVIEW WITH YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR
Who is your favourite author? What questions would you most like to ask him or her? If you write and let Di know (dibates@enterprisingwords.com), she will arrange for that author to be interviewed. If you would prefer to conduct the interview, Di will put you in touch with the author (or the illustrator).
WRITERS WHO PUBLISHED WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG
You may be interested
to know that some of your favourite Australian children’s
authors published books when they were still in their teens.
They include Michael Dugan, Sonya Hartnett, Sally Farrell Odgers, Ann Farrell (Heazlewood), Doug MacLeod, Mavis Thorpe Clark and Simon French.
In The New Writer’s Survival Guide: An Introduction to the Craft of Writing by Dianne Bates (pub. Penguin Books, 1989) a number of young people (aged from eight years up) present stories of how they have gone about getting work published or performed. There is, for example, a newspaper and book reviewer, a playwright, a film-maker, a poet, a fanzine contributor, a newspaper columnist, a short story writer and several novelists.
One of these novelists, Sonya Harnett (b.1968), who wrote her first published book at the age of 13, has gone on to make a prize winning name for herself in the world of Australian literature. Sonya says that she wrote her first exercise-book-length story when she was eight years old. This is what she said about her early writing:
“At that time I wrote a lot of highly dramatic stuff – kidnappings, people trapped on cliffs, etc. I’d start with a situation and let it go from there; I still work like that – without a plan – because I never really get ideas for stories as such. Generally when I’m writing, I listen to music: I find this is good for gunning the imagination.”
Claire Williams (b.1969) who wrote her first newspaper column when she was aged ten, is now a journalist with a national Canadian newspaper.
YOUNG WRITER INTERVIEW
Would you like to be interviewed for this section of Kids Write!? If
so, write an email to Di telling her why.
GOOD READING (BOOK AND MAGAZINE
REVIEWS)
The books below were recently released and have
been reviewed by adult reviewers. However, Kids Write is looking for
reviews written by young people. Please send your book review to dibates@enterprisingwords.com
We will publish all reviews receive. Don’t forget to include your name
and your age!
Danny da Vinci: The Giant Horse of
Milan by Bruce Whatley
and Rosie Smith (ABC Books)
rrp $11.95
Reviewed by Kathryn Edmonds
Danny da Vinci is a young novice artist at a Florence studio run by his Uncle Leo (aka Leonardo da Vinci). When Leo is commissioned by the rich and powerful Duke of Milan to produce a giant marble statue, Danny ends up completing the task. With the help of his best friend Mick Angelo and younger sister Lisa (who is such a “moaner”), Danny manages to complete his project: a not-so-realistic replica of the Duke riding a giant, rearing stallion. But will the great unveiling have the desired effect?
This is a ‘graphic novel’ and the comic book style presentation compliments the humour of the text. It will also capture a wide audience in the 8-11 year age group, appealing to both boys and girls, from reluctant to more advanced readers. Even budding history buffs will enjoy the creative references to famous artists and artworks, as well as the facts section at the end of the book.
Bruce Whatley and wife Rosie Smith have co-authored many popular titles including Whatley’s Quest, Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase, and Little White Dogs Can’t Jump.
Big Bad Bruce: Dianne Bates; illus Cheryll Johns (Koala
Books)
PB RRP
Reviewed by Jenny Mounfield
A well-written picture book will do many things: entertain, evoke strong emotions and show its readers something that matters. Big Bad Bruce delivers on all counts.
Bruce and his band of bad-boy bikers - Attila the Killer and Chopper Toezoff to name but two - rumble through the suburbs rattling windows and striking fear into the hearts of all. Bruce is so bad the very earth quakes when he speaks. And everything about him is big, especially his appetite, which can only be satisfied with ‘Hamburgers with the lot. And chips, mountains of them. Hot’ at Moose McGreasey’s café. Once that’s sorted, he’s ready to do business…
This would have to be the most original picture book story I’ve read in a long time. It made me laugh and gave me something to think about long after I closed the cover. Bates’ use of exaggeration and humour, coupled with Johns’ bold, almost brutal illustrations propel the characters off the page. Big Bad Bruce’s message is timeless; as bad as Bruce is, it isn’t all he is. This is beautifully demonstrated at the story’s conclusion.
Big Bad Bruce will appeal to kids of all ages. Boys, in particular, won’t be able to resist its vivid cover depicting Bruce burning up the road on his Harley.
Daredevils by Bill Condon (UQP Publishers)
PB RRP $14.95
Reviewed by Susanne Gervay
www.sgervay.com
Daredevils carries the Condon trademark of humour and relationships as the vehicles driving home important life themes. It is a book that challenges YA readers to analyse their lives, not to waste a day with recriminations and fear. Fulfill your dreams, as life is a precarious and precious gift that can be taken from you at any time.
As our news media blasts the recent suicide pact of the two sixteen year old girls who took their lives together, Daredevils is a timely book. Young people can get lost, overwhelmed by parental aspirations, school demands, feelings of inadequacy, peer group pressure, family relationships. The challenge is to be a daredevil. Take the risk and explore life. Not the negative and self destructive risks of drugs and/or alcohol and/or suicide, but the risks of finding love, discovering sex, defending the weak, riding a race horse, sharing friendships, looking at the world and sucking in the view. The challenges and goals are as individual as the person.
Thorn has a heart condition. He has written a list of things he wants to do before he dies. He’s already had sex, so that one is ticked off. He’s now looking for love. He finds the rocky pathway to Cassandra. He’s got a lot to do and his list keeps growing because the world is amazing. He takes his friend Jack on his journey, giving him the gift of courage and insight.
While the book’s language is simple and accessible with a great deal of dialogue, its themes are complex. The issues of death and grieving, healing and hope, ageing, blended families especially with the wonderful step-father Scobie, friendship are part of the reader’s experience.
Daredevils is sure to win a young adult audience with its
honesty, energy and joy for life.
Bill Condon has published many books for young people. His most recent
YA novels Dogs and No Worries both won the CBCA Honor Book of the Year
for Older Readers. His website is
www.enterprisingwords.com
Diego, run! by Deborah Ellis (Allen & Unwin)
PB RRP $15.95
Reviewed by Lindy Batchelor
Canadian author Deborah Ellis continues to write brave, revealing true-to-life adventures as a follow on from her highly successful Parvana books. Diego is a 12 year old boy living in a Bolivian prison with his mother and younger sister. His father is also in the local men's prison after the parents were wrongly accused of possessing drugs. However Diego is free to leave the prison each day to attend school, play with friends and run errands (to earn Bolivianos/money) for fellow prisoners. However he takes up his friend's offer to make some fast, real money and these two young boys become involved in the illegal drug trade - with sad consequences.
Deborah Ellis travelled to Bolivia to understand this true situation first hand. Children are forced to manufacture cocaine in terrible conditions in secret jungle locations where they spend hours each day crushing raw materials for cocaine with their bare, often damaged feet. This is a fascinating insight into this world.
Deborah Ellis writes non-fiction for adults as well, and her strong social conscience helps in understanding this different world. Her unique story-telling skills make this book a useful addition to home and school libraries.
Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson Black Dog Books
PB RRP $19.95
Reviewed by Sandy Fussell
Dragon Moon is the third and final book in the multi award winning Dragonkeeper trilogy, a personal favourite of mine. Although it is junior fiction, like Harry Potter, it will entertain readers of all ages.
Set in China during the Han dynasty, Dragon Moon is a clever blend of fantasy and history. Young slave girl Ping is a Dragonkeeper, chosen by the last Imperial Dragon, Danzi, to be entrusted with the care of his egg. The story follows Ping and the dragon hatchling Kai as they search for a safe haven, away from the human hunters who would cage young Kai for the luck he brings or butcher him for the magical power of his body parts.
Before the aged Danzi left for the Isle of the Blest he gave Ping a map, but none of the place names are recognisable. Each one is a clue to be unravelled as Ping and Kai walk along the Great Wall of China.
When they reach their destination, it has already been raided by dragon hunters. Only eight dragons have survived. Kai is viewed as tainted by human contact and Ping is unwelcome. Is this where Kai really belongs?
While Ping struggles to decide what should be done, the decision is made for her. When Kai challenges the only other male in the group, the young dragon’s true colours are revealed. He is a ‘dragon of five colours’, born to lead. Kai must stay and Ping must leave him behind.
Australian author Carole Wilkinson is a gifted writer with the ability to seamlessly interweave historical fact and dragon fantasy. I find myself tempted to believe the dragons of Chinese legend really existed. If only there could be a Book 4…
The Brain Finds a Leg by Martin Chatterton (Little Hare)
PB RRP $14.99
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis
A great mystery begins after The Coreal is sunk when the humpback whales, acting completely out of character, smash the ship to pieces. Everyone on board is lost including Sheldon’s father, Captain McGlone. Two years after the tragic incident, the strange, Theophilus Brain, known as ‘The Brain’ because of his enlarged cranium and incredible intelligence (obtained after falling into the Genius Machine along with a library full of books), joins Sheldon’s class. He is a miniature Sherlock Holmes, his specialty being crime and detection.
Sheldon is not the brightest of boys and perhaps even the most unpopular in school. But for some reason The Brain singles him out to be his sidekick. But there is a mystery surrounding The Brain who is there incognito to solve the mystery of the sudden change in animal behaviour in the Farrago Bay district. For the koalas have presented with murderous tendencies, the kangaroos have become thieves, Mavis the crocodile thinks she’s a dog and the bats fly during the day. Then there’s the mysterious murder of the famous surfer, Biff Manly.
This book contains bizarre and incredible situations which may defy belief but are entertaining in their absurdity and will be popular with younger readers.
GOOD WEBSITES
• Kids Scoop is a website which encourages kids to write in with stories
and poems http://www.kidscoop.com/kids/wwc_websubmissions.html
TIPS ON WRITING AND GETTING PUBLISHED
POETRY TIPS FOR KIDS
So how do you increase your chances of having your poem published or winning a poetry competition? Although there is no right or wrong way to write a poem or to lay it out (often the more imaginative the better) there are some basic rules to follow. If you are sending a poem via email, you should probably write the poem on your computer first, and then paste it into the e-mail. Send it as part of the e-mail - NOT as an attachment.
1. Use small letters - not CAPS! Writing your poem in capitals makes it look like you're shouting.
2. Lay your poem out in short lines - one under the other. Always start a line as far to the left as possible. Don't leave gaps. (Your poem might look better artfully arranged - but this rule is a technical one.)
3. Begin sentences with a capital letter. End them with a full stop. Only use a comma if you think it is definitely needed. Don't use hundreds of !!!!!!!!!!! Some poets like to begin EVERY new line with a capital letter. That is perfectly okay!
4. Check that your poem makes sense. Judges of competitions often receive poems with words or whole lines missing and then they have to guess what the poet meant to put there.
5. This seems obvious but - Check your spelling!
6. Re-draft before you send your poem - re-read it and see if it can be improved. I am seldom happy with the first thing I write. Sometimes my poems change four or five times before I'm happy with them.
7. Keep the poem fairly short. Poems over twenty lines long take up too much space and probably won't be chosen. Short poems have a very good chance!
8. Keep your entry simple. Do not use fancy fonts, different colours and do not use coloured backgrounds. If we have space for two poems and one is laid out simply, in black and in Arial or Times New Roman and the other is in an odd text (that has to be changed) and in bold (which has to be changed) and in colour (which has to be changed) with a coloured background (which has to changed) - which poem do you think a publisher would choose?
SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS
Commercial publication of writing
by young people is not as encouraged as is writing by adults, but there
are enough opportunities around for you to have a go if you believe your
work is good enough. You could try submitting your novel or collection
of poems, etc. to book publishers, or entering the open section of writing
competitions, but it is more realistic for you to consider investigating
markets, competitions, workshops and festivals specifically targeted
at young people.
Listed here are a number of opportunities. They are accurate at the time of going to press, but circumstances change (for example, magazines fold and competition conditions alter.) Thus you would be advised to first contact the organisers to ask for a copy of conditions and/or an entry form. ALWAYS include a stamped, self-addressed envelope (s.s.a.e) for return of material. Before sending your work off, read the section below on HOW TO PRESENT A MANUSCRIPT. The main things to remember are to always keep a copy of everything you send away, always include your name and address, and never submit work which is not your own, unaided effort.
How your work looks when it is sent to a competition or
to a publisher is very important. It gives a good first impression. Here
are some tips on how to present your manuscript to its best possible
advantage:
1. Submit only the very best writing you are capable of. Proofread
your manuscript for spelling, punctuation, grammar and typing errors
before you send it.
2. Always include your name and address!
3. Always
include a stamped self-addressed envelope (ssae) for return of your manuscript.
4. Send postage stamps to cover return of your work.
5. Manuscripts ought
to be typed. Always use double-spacing with wide margins (top, bottom
and sides) and number your pages. Type on only one side of the paper.
Most publishers prefer A4-size, white paper.
Include a title page with
a) title of work’
b) type of work (one-act play, short story, etc)
c) name and address (and phone number, if you have one)
d) length (if a short story or novel)
6. Publishers prefer unbound manuscripts because they may need to photocopy
them at a later date. Put an elastic band around the manuscript, or place
it in a ring folder.
7. ALWAYS KEEP A COPY of everything you send away.
Manuscripts can and do get lost. Sometimes they are not returned. Carbon
paper is the cheapest and easiest way of copying.
8. If entering a competition,
always obey the conditions stated: for example, if the rules state a
poem you submit must be unpublished, it means just that.
9. Never, ever
send work which is not your own, original unaided work!
NOTICES
Di is looking for really enthusiastic young writers who would love to
volunteer to become involved in Kids Write! to review books, undertake
research (such as finding great websites) and to write articles. If you
are interested, contact her at dibates@enterprisingwords.com telling
a bit about yourself.
Everyone is welcome to write with their ideas and suggestions to make
Kids Write! as good as it can be. _______________________________________________________
NB: Kids Write! is provided exclusively to subscribers. To photocopy,
email or otherwise reproduce all or part of Kids Write! without the written
permission of the publisher is illegal.
Submissions to Kids Write! are invited, including letters to the editor,
with contributions to be emailed to dibates@enterprisingwords.com Dianne (Di) Bates
PO Box 2116
Woonona East
NSW 2517
www.enterprisingwords.com
