“It caused participants to see more creative ways to approach creative writing,” said Barbara Arrindell, who this week completed a series of pre-deadline workshops she volunteered to offer to people interested in submitting to the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize Challenge.
“For me, as the facilitator, if it causes one more person to become more excited about reading and writing, it was time well spent.”
The submission deadline is today, March 26; submission form and details at wadadlipen.wordpress.com.
More development opportunities will be forthcoming for winning participants. One, via new patron, the Bocas Literary Arts Festival out of Trinidad and Tobago. They are offering a spot in one of their developmental workshops for several finalists, and a membership subscription to the overall winner giving them access to a number of Bocas facilities including workshops and events.
Another new patron is also one of the newest bookstores in Antigua and Barbuda, Ten Pages bookstore, owned by an old friend of Wadadli Pen, Glen Toussaint. He has offered to gift a cache of books for young readers. These will be added to books already received from Harper Collins (UK), and books promised by award winning Jamaican author Diana McCaulay and her publisher Peepal Tree Press, and local author Patricia Tully.
The winner of the Zuri Holder Achievement Award for writers 12 and younger will also receive a gift certificate toward the purchase of books; while Commonwealth and Bocas award winning author Olive Senior, recently announced as Jamaica’s third poet laureate, has already contributed EC $520 toward the purchase of books.
There is also cash, over EC $1,000 to be won, thanks to contributions from the likes of past finalists Rilys Adams and Daryl George, and longtime patrons Frank B Armstrong and Juneth Webson.
These are among the number of generous patrons already announced including day 1 patron The Best of Books, also Moondancer Books, and US based Jamaican Garfield Linton.
Wadadli Pen extends thanks to all patrons and media like antiguanice.com which sponsors a page on its platform for Wadadli Pen and the various media – Observer, ABS, and others – who have hosted representatives for interviews, and print and online media for amplifying the message.
There is lots to win, including, and most vitally, Wadadli Pen believes, the opportunity to express yourself.
As a reminder, especially because they look forward to receiving many entries, if you want your entry to be considered for the 2020 prize, please say so explicitly on the submission form and please be reminded that the submission form, completed and submitted electronically to the email [email protected], is necessary for processing of entries.