When I was in elementary school I entered a regional writing contest. All of the regional winners were published in a book with a forest green cover that my family kept in their magazine rack for decades. Georgia Public Broadcasting is having their annual PBS KIDS Writers Contest. It’s open for kindergarten through third grade and kids can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry or a graphic novel.
They can essentially write anything, but check through the rules just to confirm that your child’s idea adheres to what they’re accepting. The stories have to be their original work. When you visit the GPS website you can see previous winners, as well as, the application that parents or guardians need to fill out. Young writers will receive prizes, in addition to being featured on the GPS website.
I don’t recall what, if any prizes I got for winning my contest. Whatever prize it was, it paled in comparison to the actual memory of winning. The family would pull out that green book, gamefully thumbing through the poems, essays and short stories until they found mine. It was a one-paragraph opus about a dirty dog who was found in the city. The judges might’ve thought that it was a metaphor for redemption, but in my mind it was just a covert way to ask my parents to get a dog, which was continually denied.
Why does your child want to write their essay, poem, short story or graphic novel? That’s their story to tell, it’s the act and practice of doing it that will make them better. The deadline for the GPB PBS KIDS Writers Contest is March 31. This particular contest is only open to residents of Georgia, but there are many other states having similar, if not identical contests.
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