“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
InCITE Contest Winners
Student Writer Workshops at CITE Along with Terry Fallis, we will also have author Gary Barwin working with student winners during morning of the CITE 2015 conference at HSC. Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist, and the author of 18 books of poetry and fiction as well as books for kids. His most recent collection is Moon Baboon Canoe (poetry, Mansfield Press, 2014.) Forthcoming books include Yiddish for Pirates (novel, Random House Canada, 2016), I, Dr Greenblatt, Orthodontist, 251-1457 (fiction, Anvil 2015) and Sonosyntactics: Selected and New Poetry of Paul Dutton (Wilfred Laurier University, 2015). Recently his work has appeared in numerous anthologies both in Canada and internationally. He was Young Voices eWriter-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library in Fall of 2013 and is 2014-2015 Writer-in-Residence at Western University. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com. |
Student Writing Contest
Open to all CIS students from grades 7 to 12; each school may submit one entry from each grade band (i.e., one from grades 7-8, one from grades 9-10, and one from grades 11-12). English departments are encouraged to determine the best student work in any genre or form for each of the grade band. See below for details. All CIS school submissions will be published in the InCITE anthology, and the top three writers for each grade band will receive prizes; in addition, prize-winning student authors will have the opportunity to participate in a Writer's Workshop with the InCITE judge, Terry Fallis and author Gary Barwin during the CITE conference on April 11, 2015. InCITE Judge: Terry Fallis We are delighted to have award winning Canadian novelist Terry Fallis as our judge for the InCITE Student Writing Contest 2015. Terry's fourth novel, No Relation, debuted on The Globe and Mail bestsellers list. In 2013, he was awarded Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award: Author of the Year. Our students will welcome his warm blend of humour and substance. His previous novels, The Best Laid Plans, The High Road and Up and Down garnered Stephen Leacock Award for Humour (or nominations for the award). The Best Laid Plans won the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal and was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC Canada Reads as the essential Canadian novel of the decade. |
Creative writing prompt:
Make us laugh!
There are plenty of stories that make us sad, or scared, or angry, or uplifted. But there seem to be fewer stories that actually make us laugh. It’s not easy to use words on a page to make someone laugh. But we need more humour in the world, and when it works, it’s wonderful for the writer and the reader. Write something, about anything, where the intention is to make the reader laugh. There are lots of ways to get there. Slapstick, wordplay, irony, exaggeration, sarcasm, black humour, and more. You decide. Be careful not to push it too far. When writing humour, sometimes less is more.
Submission details:
Each CIS school can submit its top writer in each of the three grade bands:
Grade bands:
Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded at each grade band: $100 (First place), $75 (Second), $50 (Third).
Criteria:
Submission requirements:
Make us laugh!
There are plenty of stories that make us sad, or scared, or angry, or uplifted. But there seem to be fewer stories that actually make us laugh. It’s not easy to use words on a page to make someone laugh. But we need more humour in the world, and when it works, it’s wonderful for the writer and the reader. Write something, about anything, where the intention is to make the reader laugh. There are lots of ways to get there. Slapstick, wordplay, irony, exaggeration, sarcasm, black humour, and more. You decide. Be careful not to push it too far. When writing humour, sometimes less is more.
Submission details:
Each CIS school can submit its top writer in each of the three grade bands:
Grade bands:
- Grades 7-8
- Grades 9-10
- Grades 11-12
Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded at each grade band: $100 (First place), $75 (Second), $50 (Third).
Criteria:
- Student entries should fit one of the following genres or forms:
- Poetry (up to 120 lines)
- Short Story (up to 1200 words)
- Personal Essay (up to 1200 words)
- Dramatic Scene (up to 1200 words)
- English Departments are also encouraged to include student artwork submissions related to the theme. The best artwork submitted will be featured on the cover and will win a prize!
- All written work must be produced in the 2014-2015 academic year.
Submission requirements:
- InCITE submissions are due Monday, February 23, 2015.
- Teachers are asked to have the entries edited for mechanical and grammatical errors.
- The teacher, NOT the student, should submit the entries to Sarah Hudson as attached Word documents.
- If your school has access to Turnitin.com (a site that checks for student originality), please submit student work ahead of time to avoid plagiarism.