As part of the Stories Alive celebrations, there will be a short story writing and drawing contests for children and teens. There are three age categories – 6 to 9 year olds, 10 to 13 year olds and 14 to 17 year olds. Stories and drawings must be submitted the evening of Stories Alive and will be judged by the members of Pens Alive, a Words Alive Book Festival offshoot writers’ group. Winners will be notified by e-mail or telephone.

All stories must include the entrants name, contact information and age.

Official Rules:

1)      You may enter as often as you wish but:

a)      Manuscripts must be submitted separately;

b)      Manuscripts must be typed, at approximately 12-point font, double-spaced, singled-sided; and

c)      Pages must be numbered.

2)      Manuscripts must be accompanied by the following author information:

a)      Name;

b)      Address, including City/Town, and Postal Code;

c)      Phone number;

d)      Email address, if available; and

e)      Age

3)      Incomplete or pseudonymous entries are not be eligible to win. Stories Alive is not responsible for late, lost, destroyed or misplaced entries in connection with the contest. Do not include any other correspondence with entries.

4)      Employees or associates of the Stories Alive organization and their immediate families are ineligible to enter.

5)      Extremely long or extremely short entries may be disqualified.

6)      Entrants warrant that:

a)      short stories are original and unpublished works of fiction, and authored by a resident of the Westman;

b)      short stories do not infringe upon any copyright, proprietary right or any other right of any kind; and

c)      the author has the unimpaired right to convey publication rights to the Stories Alive festival.

7)      All entries must be received by contest closing date, Saturday, June 5, at 9 p.m. Odds of winning depend upon the number of eligible entries received. Selected entrants will be notified by telephone and/or email.

8)      Entrants, by entering this contest, consent to the use of their name and/or photograph, without compensation, for future publicity carried out by Stories Alive in connection with this contest.

9)      Entrants retain copyright to their manuscripts. However, by entering this contest, all entrants grant to Stories Alive a worldwide, perpetual, paidup, non-exclusive licence to publish, republish or reproduce their manuscripts an unlimited number of times, in original or edited form, in all media and forms of reproduction and distribution now in existence or developed in the future.

10)  Except for the winners, Stories Alive will not barter or share any entrant’s personal and/or private information with any other organization.

11)  Winners may be selected on entertainment value as well as literary merit or any other quality or combination of qualities. Contest judges, as appointed by Stories Alive, will be the sole appraisers and will have the sole power to determine winning entries.

12)  Winners may be published in the program for the 2010 Words Alive book festival. Prior to publication, entries may be edited for taste, length, spelling and/or grammar.

13)  Contest judges will make the final decision on any interpretation of these rules.