Entries for this year’s What’s the Story? short story contest have been coming in thick and fast, but there is still time for budding authors to get their creative work submitted ahead of the deadline of Thursday 26th April.
The competition, which encourages budding North-east school pupils to write in the language that comes naturally to them – whether that be Doric, 'text-speak' 'shtree' (urban street talk) or even a foreign language - will see the winning entries being published in a book, and the winning entrants and their families being invited to attend a special award ceremony at this year's Word Festival on 11-13 May.
Any tale submitted must be loosely based around this year's theme of 'Oor Wey o' Spikin' (our way of speaking), which recognises the wide range of dialects and languages now spoken in the North-east. The winning stories will be selected by a panel of judges, including one of the nation's favourite children's authors and illustrators, Frank Rodgers.
Students from S1 to S3 are asked to write a maximum of 1000 words while students from S4 to S6 can produce up to 1200 words. Anyone who wants to enter the competition can call 01224 346361 for an entry form or collect one from school libraries.
Stories should either be posted or emailed to Louise Baxter, Cultural Co-ordinator, Arts Education Team, Aberdeen City Council, Summerhill Centre, Stronsay Drive, Aberdeen AB15 6JA; e-mail: href="mailto:lbaxter@aberdeencity.gov.uk">lbaxter@aberdeencity.gov.uk</a></p>
The competition is being run in conjunction with the TESS and Wordfirsts, a publishing partnership between Word – the acclaimed University of Aberdeen Writers' Festival – and the Aberdeen Storytelling and Theatre Festival, run by Aberdeen City Council's Arts Education Team.
The closing date for entries is Thursday, 26 April 2007.