Friends of the Chappaqua Library 30th Annual Young Writers Contest begins on Mon., Jan. 25

January 22, 2010
by Cheryl Jacobs Ehrlich

Get out your ballpoints, your quills and your word-processors. The Friends of the Chappaqua Library is again sponsoring the Annual Young Writers Contest in 2010. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the contest.

The contest is open to all students, grades 6 to 12, residing in the Chappaqua Central School District. Applications will be available starting Monday, January 25, 2010, in the Chappaqua Library and the English departments at Horace Greeley High School, Bell Middle School and Seven Bridges Middle School, and on-line via the Chappaqua Library website. 

The three categories for submissions are:

Fiction (short story, drama);

Non-fiction (essay, journalism, humor, descriptive prose); and

Poetry.

Each year several local professional writers volunteer to judge the contest. First, second and third prizes will be awarded in each category, at both the middle school and high school levels. High school winners will be announced at the annual Awards Assembly in the spring. 

All manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point type, and no longer than ten pages. There is no fee to enter. All three categories may be entered, but no more than one submission per category will be accepted, so please submit your best work. All work must be original. A separate application form is required for each submission and the student’s name may not appear anywhere on the manuscript, which must be submitted in quadruplicate. No email submissions. Please see entry form for the full rules. 

The only change from prior years is the requirement that manuscripts be submitted in quadruplicate. In past years, the Friends of the Chappaqua Library absorbed the cost of copying each manuscript three times to distribute a clean copy to each judge. The cost of that has become prohibitive, running into the hundreds of dollars.

Find the Young Writers Contest Application on the Friends’ page of the Library’s website, at the bottom.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 19, 2010, 6:00 p.m. at the Chappaqua Library. 

The Friends of the Chappaqua Library look forward to seeing the creative talents of the students in the district, and having the opportunity to recognize their artistic efforts. 

Cheryl Jacobs Ehrlich is on the board of the Friends of the Chappaqua Library and a contributor to NewCastleNOW.org