School District 46 and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts are gearing up to publish the 14th edition of Coastal Voices—an adjudicated anthology of student writing.
Coastal Voices is published annually by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of the Sunshine Coast School District and the Festival of the Written Arts that was created to promote literacy and to encourage youth to express themselves through both the written and spoken word.
Each year a call goes out to teachers and schools from up and down the Sunshine Coast for poems, stories, personal narratives and short essays. Submissions are then sent to a team of volunteer adjudicators from the community to choose a selection of the best writing for publication. The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 15.
In 2023, the adjudicators received over 800 submissions, which were then whittled down to almost 240 pieces published in two anthologies—one featured work by elementary students, the other by secondary students.
All students enrolled in the Sunshine Coast School District—from kindergarten to grade 12—are invited to submit up to three pieces of poetry, short stories, personal narrative or essays. Maximum length is 500 words per submission. For more information about Coastal Voices, students can talk to their teachers, or email John Lussier at jl******@sd**.ca.