Young Writers Contest 2020

As we all know, there is a strong connection between reading and writing. For this reason, PARC loves to sponsor its annual Young Writers Contest. Even though last year's contest ended without the opportunity to honor our finalists at our awards recognition ceremony, we would like to offer the contest in a new format. This year, all entries will be done digitally!  Of course, there is no way to predict the future, but we are hopeful that we will be able to resume our annual awards ceremony in the spring. 

Contest Information:

As in the past, we will have three options for the contest. Students in grades K-3 can submit a poetry anthology or a fictional piece. Students in grades 3-12 have three categories including poetry, short fiction or essay. The essay topics are differentiated by age and level in order to better match writing standards. 

The contest is open to all PARC public and private schools in the districts we serve as well as all homeschooling students within our area. If you are interested in your child participating, please reach out to your child's teacher by no later than December 15th to give your child's teacher time to plan for it. If you are a homeschooling parent, please email PARC at youngwritersVA2021@gmail.com so that we can plan for your submission. 

Contest Timeline:

October 12, 2020	All documents shared with Piedmont Area Reading Council school systems; Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Danville City, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Lynchburg City, Martinsville City, Mecklenburg, Nelson, Nottaway, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward including public and private schools as well as homeschooling students who request to participate
Week of February 15, 2021	District level judging and deadline for each participating district/private school to email PARC the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of two judges willing to travel to Lynchburg to judge books in early March (location TBD). Seven recertification points will be given to all judges. (vsrapiedmont@gmail.com)
March 1, 2021	All books submitted for judging must be received by this date in order to be considered. Entries will be submitted electronically to  youngwritersVA2021@gmail.com  Electronic submission instructions will be explained in the contest packet.
Early March 2020	PARC Regional-level judging takes place in Lynchburg, VA
Late March 2020	Invitations will go out to notify all PARC Regional-level winners and to invite them to attend the awards ceremony held April 24th (location TBD). An invitation is also mailed to each finalist’s principal as well as the district coordinator. We request that a representative from each district who is attending the awards ceremony collect unclaimed books/certificates in order to get awards and books back to the authors in a timely fashion. This year, we will also send out a list of all finalists to each participating school/district. *Please note that our awards ceremony could change if COVID-19 regulations are still in place.

Contest Participation:

To participate in this year's contest, download the contest packet HERE or by clicking the image below.