Kick-off to Writing Program

Learning to read and write well is a challenging task for anyone, adult or child. It takes effort, time, patience, practice, and, most importantly, lots and lots of encouragement. In these difficult economic times, when parents and teachers, who do the best they can to guide children to develop these very important skills given extremely limited resources, the Charlotte Literary Festival has chosen to join in these efforts to help foster a love for words and reading in the form of its annual Kickoff to Writing Program. 

The Kickoff to Writing Programworks with CMS students to help improve reading and writing, and offers special creative writing (and art) programs combining motivational (inspirational) and skill-building activities, peer group interaction, and publishing opportunities. This year, the program will focus on providing elementary and middle school students the opportunity to explore self-discovery and self–expression through poetry (and lyric) and high school students the opportunity to do the same through graphic arts to accompany our poetry themes. Poetry, particularly as song lyrics, are everywhere in popular culture today. As such, it can be successfully employed as a tool to reinforce vocabulary and assist in learning to use language creatively.  Poetry can also promote awareness of stereotypes including race, class, ethnicity and gender.  
This unique program offers interested CMS students the opportunity to participate in a four-week course in which our committee members, with the assistance of volunteers from the community, will work with students to inspire their creativity in written and visual formats. As an incentive to participate, we plan to provide students an opportunity not only to win back-to-school supplies, but also to receive a published copy of their own work (and the work of the other participants) in the form of a book of poetry and artwork, which we will feature at the 2009 Charlotte Literary Festival.   

Another very important aspect of this year’s Kickoff to Writing Program is its inspirational directive: To Release Fears and Embrace Dreams. Too often, as parents may well remember from their own childhoods, childrenstruggle with many issues, which they are reluctant to share with the adults in their lives. In this program, we hope to provide children a creative, healthy, and positive outlet to express emotions without “telling” on anyone in their lives. As envisaged in this program, poetry and artistic expression can serve as creative outlets for realizing hopes and dreams as well as releasing unhealthy fears and feelings, some of which might revolve around issues such as: violence (global, national, racial, and family), abuse (physical, sexual, substance), or environmental concerns (pollution, economy, and climate change).  Given the dramatic outcome of the last election, in the spirit of President Obama’s message of “Change” and “Yes, We Can,” we wish to awaken (reawaken) in children the belief that they have the power not only to change their own lives and the lives of others, but also to achieve their wildest dreams. 

Directions for the Contest

Members of the CLF committee as well as professors from various post-secondary institutions in Charlotte will conduct a four-week course to help elementary and middle school students create their poetry and high school students to create the graphic art for this poetry.  Classes begin:

• Saturday, July 4th from 1pm to 3pm
• Saturday, July 11th from 1pm to 3pm
• Saturday, July 18th from 1pm to 3pm
• Saturday, July 25th from 1pm to 3pm

The location will be announced on June 1st.
 
Rules:

• The contest is open to any child in Mecklenburg County, from 9-18 years of age. Older students must have not yet completed high school.
  
  
• Poetry must include an issue with which the student (i.e. how to avoid peer pressure, the impact that war/violence/etc. has on them, etc.)
  
  
• Students may enter on their own, or as part of our four-week program.  Students that participate in the entire four-week program are guaranteed an award.
  
  
• About 50 poems and artwork entries will be selected as finalists. All winners receive back-to-school supplies, books and/or art supplies, t-shirts, published work and other prizes.
  
  
• Winners will be announced at the 2009 Charlotte Literary Festival, September 5th at the Charlotte Convention Center.
  
  
• Entries for the Kickoff to Writing Program need to be postmarked by July 15th. Download your Entry Form and get your poems and art in the mail today!
  
  
• Contestant certificates will be mailed out in May and June. Please contact us if you haven't received yours by July 1, 2009. Please remember that we have to be able to read your entry form (and it has to include your mailing address, clearly written) in order for you to receive your certificate.
  
  
• Youth may enter the contest as many times as they like, but a separate entry form must be completed for each submission. Teachers should send all the entries from their classes together in one (or several, if needed) envelopes. Do not have each student mail their entry separately.
  
  
• All poems must be original work. Written poetry must be either typed (preferred) or legibly written in ink (pencil does not photocopy). Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length. The student’s name, school, city and state should be on the poem, and a completed Entry Form should be stapled to each poem.
  
  Collaborative poems are accepted, but only one child (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded. We are able to accept poems only in English and Spanish.
  
  
• All artwork must be original work.  Artwork should not exceed 11” by 17” in size-no exceptions. Acceptable media are paint, pencil, markers, ink, crayon, chalk or pastel (fixed), photography, cloth, collage and computer art. (Photo entries must be at least 8x10 inches.) All entries must contain the student’s name, school, city and state on the back — do not use a marker or anything that will show through! A completed entry form must also be affixed to the back of each piece of artwork. Please attach the entry form with tape or other fixative (if using glue, be careful to use one that will not run through and damage the artwork) — also, do not use paperclips (they fall off)! High quality color reproductions of prize-winning artwork will be provided to their respective creators. We will not accept color copies—all entries must be original work.
  
  
• Art entries must be done on paper that will allow for duplication, display or framing. Please, no notebook or typing paper, and do not mat, mount, laminate, frame or fold artwork.  Entries must be mailed flat or rolled in a tube — no folding, please!
  
  
• Submissions become property of CLF. Through submission of poetry or artwork, contestants and their legal guardians grant non-exclusive reproduction and publication rights to the works submitted, which will not be returned. 
  
  
• Grand prize: about 50 students will be awarded with a hardcover book that includes their and other students’ poetry and graphics.  Students will be able to order additional copies needed at a discounted rate for personal use or to sell. **
  
  
• Poetry submissions and artwork are judged by CLF committee members and local authors based on a point system.

     
Helpful Hints:

• You become a good poet by writing lots of poems. Each time you write a new poem, try to make it as good as you can and your skill will improve with each poem you write.
  
  
• A notebook you can carry with you all the time is your most important tool for writing poetry. Take it with you everywhere you go, and always try to remember to write your ideas down when they come to you.
  
  
• The only tools you really need to write poems are a pencil and paper, and your brain. But writing poetry can be even easier if you have a rhyming dictionary, a dictionary and a thesaurus.
  
  
• If you have a computer and Internet access, you don't need to buy reference books such as a rhyming dictionary. All the references you need are available online!
  
  
• Editing while you write can slow you down. If you can't find the right word or the perfect sentence, move on to the next verse and come back to the problem later when you will see it with "new eyes".
  
  
• Don't worry about spelling or punctuation until you are done writing a poem. Check the spelling and punctuation as part of a final "polishing".
  
  
• We encourage parents to assist students with graphics.
  
  
• Poetry can be fiction or nonfiction.
  
  
• To participate in the four-week program, please submit he enclosed application.

DOWNLOAD KICKOFF APPLICATION HERE

Submissions:
You can drop off or mail your poetry or artwork to:
Attn: Charlotte Literary Festival “Kick-off to Writing Contest”
RealEyes Bookstore
3306A N. Davidson Street
Charlotte, NC 28205

Call (704) 377-8989 for more details.

We hope that our mission to get kids to read more and to use their imagination will spark a flame inside them that will never go out. We look forward to seeing just how creative the kids can be. Thank you for being part of the 2009 Charlotte Literary Festival!

-Darren Vincent, Festival Director