Calling all young authors! The deadline to submit to the 15th anniversary edition of Coastal Voices, an adjudicated anthology of writing by School District 46 students, is rapidly approaching.
Students in Kindergarten to grade 12 have until Friday, March 14 to submit up to three poems, stories, personal narratives or short essays with a maximum length of 500 words. Submissions will be sent to a team of volunteer adjudicators from the community, who have the difficult task of choosing a selection of the best writing for publication. For the sake of fairness and impartiality, names and identifying schools are removed from each submission—the only information the adjudicators have when they make their decisions is the approximate age (grade) of the authors.
The adjudicators usually receive between 700-800 submissions each year, which then have to be whittled down to 150-200 pieces for the anthology.
“Each of these pieces of art represents what these gifted young people are thinking and feeling,” says John Lussier, a retired educator and the anthology’s coordinator. “They have created their own magic and then have been brave enough to share it with the world.”
Another important part of the anthology is its professional design, created by Edmund Arceo of Zoom Magazine. Arceo has been involved with Coastal Voices since its inception, and he volunteers his time and expertise each year to produce a beautiful volume that honours and celebrates its contributors.
Coastal Voices is published annually by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of School District 46 – Sunshine Coast and the Festival of the Written Arts that was formed to promote literacy and to encourage youth to express themselves through both the written and spoken word.
For more information about submitting to Coastal Voices, students can talk to their teachers, or email John Lussier at jl******@sd**.ca.