Power of the Pen Behind the Scenes...

All of the entries for Power of the Pen are in and now you might be wondering, 'what are you doing with my poem/short story?'

Well, a few things! I (Kat) look after all the electronic entries and Marcel, the teen librarian at Central looks after all the print entries.

We have to check the entries to make sure they follow the guidelines and disqualify entries that go over the word count. We have to make sure that everyone has only submitted one poem and one short story. We also make sure that all entrants are between 12 and 18.

Next we go through and make sure entrant's names aren't on their poem or short story. We call this 'blinding'. We want to make sure that the judges don't know who wrote what so that the judging will be as fair as possible.

Once the entries are all blinded, we assign each entry a number and label them so when we get them back from the judges we'll know which entry belong to whom.

Still with me?

Once we do all that we attach each entry to a judging form and then divide the entries into their category (ie. 13 year old poetry, 15 year old short story). Next, the packages are finally ready to go to their judges!

So right now we're in the middle of printing, blinding and dividing up all those entries so we can get them to the judges. It's a big job but totally worth it!

Last day for Power of the Pen & Photography contest!

(I love our new logo!)

If you are still procrastinating, it's time to finish up your entries for Power of the Pen, our short story and poetry competition.

You can find the details here - http://www.hpl.ca/guides/power-pen-creative-writing-contest

Good luck to all of our entrants! It's been so nice seeing familiar faces as I look over the entries to make sure they follow the rules (pro-tip: check your word count, people!!).

Also, check out the photography contest. Take some awesome selfies and submit them today!!

Power of the Pen!

I am very pleased to announce the Power of the Pen winners for 2013. They were all so phenomenal and I know the judges had a hard time deciding.

Without further ado, you can pop over to the website to see the winners!

Power of the Pen workshop!

If you're looking for some extra help with your Power of the Pen entry, I'll be running a critique workshop tomorrow (Wednesday) at Stoney Creek branch, 2pm. It should be an awesome opportunity to meet other writers, get some feedback on your entry and get creative.

Hope to see you there!

Power of the Pen Reminder!

Just a friendly reminder that you still have almost three weeks to submit your Power of the Pen poems and stories.

Even if (and maybe especially if) you're not confident in your writing, I really encourage you to submit and get some feedback. You could win an iPad just for entering!

Get the details here!

Also, a shout out to everyone who has already submitted. You're all submitting in the correct formats and it's making my life so much easier. High fives all around!

Pick of the Week!

Just a quick heads up that our Power of the Pen competition is open for entry!

You can find out all the details here along with a complete entry form and also a link to our online entry form if you'd rather submit online (please do!).

For those who haven't heard of our writing competition, it's an annual competition for teens 12-18. You're judged against others in your age category, and poetry and short stories are judged separately. If you win, you get $100 and second place takes $25. You also get your entry looked over by a real life writer which is pretty cool.

You can submit one per category (poetry/short story) so start writing! Deadline is August 31.

Best of luck!

Congratulations, Sophia!

Congratulations to Sophia Simonovic, the winner of the Power of the Pen iPad draw. All entrants were put into a raffle for an iPad. We drew the winner at the awards ceremony on January 18.

Here she is accepting the gift from Marcel Faulkner, one of the organizers of Power of the Pen.

 Have fun writing on your new tablet, Sophia!

This could be you next year! You can submit your entry to Power of the Pen starting in March!

Power of the Pen awards!

I was fortunate enough to host the Power of the Pen awards on Friday January 18th.

 Author Vikki Vansickle was our keynote speaker and spoke to how she got her start as a writer entering poetry contests. First place winners read their work which you can also read by clicking here!

If you entered a poem or short story, you can pick it up at Central Library, second floor. If you were a winner and unable to attend, we'll be mailing your cheque. Congratulations to all of our winners!

Pictures to come soon!

Power of the Pen Update

Power of the Pen winners have all been contacted! Congratulations to our winners! Everyone is invited to the awards ceremony on Friday January 18, 2013 at 7 p.m. at Central Library.

Winners, keep an eye on your mailboxes next week as I hope to mail out the invitations shortly.

I hope to see you all there looking your best!

Power of the Pen deadline!

Just a reminder to submit your Power of the Pen entries by Friday!

Here are some tips in case you haven't submitted yours yet:

• make sure you check the word count on your short stories - it has to be under 2500 words!
• double-check spelling! Spellcheck is not the be-all and end-all of editing. Have someone you trust look over your entry for spelling and grammar. There's nothing worse than a beautifully written poem with a typo in the title. 
• You don't need to put your name on your actual submission. We blind everything for the judges so they don't know whose is whose.
• Read your entry aloud to make sure it makes sense. Sometimes you skip a word and don't realize it
• This one is obvious but - don't plagiarize! We're checking all entries for plagiarism.

Best of luck to everyone who has submitted so far. I've been glancing at them as I get them ready for the judges and they look phenomenal. Even if you don't win, I think you can all be extremely proud for entering.

You can look at the official rules and enter your submission here!

If you have any questions about Power of the Pen, leave me a comment or email me at kdrennan (at) hpl.ca (Except, put the @ symbol where it's supposed to go).

Power of the Pen entries

If you haven't yet picked up your Power of the Pen entry from the Central Library, please do so by the end of the month. The entries have valuable feedback from the judges on them so they're worth picking up.

Congratulations again to our winners and best of luck to everyone next year! Start writing because the call for submissions will be open on March Break.

Power of the Pen Winners!

I am very pleased to announce the winners of the Power of the Pen Writing Competition!

You can see the list of winners here!

If you entered the writing competition, you will soon be getting an invitation to our awards ceremony where you will be able to meet the judges, hear the winning entries and get to see who won the iPad2.

Power of the Pen!

I hope that nearly all your entries are in for Power of the Pen, our annual writing competition! Just a quick reminder - please make sure that your entries are in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. I don't want you to miss the deadline (AUG 31!) because you had to convert it!

Best of luck to everyone who is entering. I'm sure excited to meet all you talented folks at the awards Gala in November!

(psst, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, get the deets here!)

Gear up for Power of the Pen!

Just a quick reminder that the Power of the Pen deadline is quickly approaching but you still have until the end of August to come up with something awesome and be entered in a draw to win an iPad 2. To help you out, we're holding a few writing classes here in the library that I hope you can come out to.

• Turner Park is having a four week writing workshop starting on July 20. It's going to be every Wednesday until August 10th at 2 p.m. You can register by calling 905-546-3200 ext. 4192.

• We're also having a workshop for overcoming Writer's Block which is going to be at a couple locations:
  Terryberry: Monday July 25 at 1 p.m.  Register by calling 905-546-3921
  Dundas: Friday August 19 at 2:30.

• Waterdown is also having a writing workshop for all ages which is happening Wednesday July 20th at 2 p.m. 

• And finally there's going to be a Power of the Pen prep program where you can bring in your submissions to the contest and get feedback and editing help before you submit them. You'll also get a chance to read last year's submissions to get an idea of what the judges might be looking for.
  Terryberry: Monday August 22 at 1 p.m. Register by calling 905-546-3921
  Stoney Creek: Wednesday August 24 at 2:30 p.m. 

I leave you with this awesome vid by Maureen Johnson, YA author and awesome person about how it's okay to suck when you write.

Celebrate Poetry Month!

Yes, I realize it's already 12 days into National Poetry Month. Would you believe me if I said I was busy writing poetry?

(No, I wouldn't either).

If you're not normally into poetry (like me), you may still enjoy novels in verse. A novel in verse is basically a series of poems that tell a story. I didn't think I would like novels in verse, but I picked up Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse for a class and really loved it. Novel in verse is a really unique way to tell really heartbreaking stories (Out of the Dust is a story that takes place during the Great Depression).

The novels in the scrolly thing above are sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hopeful, and deal with issues from death to break-ups to personal injury due to shark attack. I hope you give one a try. If nothing else, they're really quick reads and are perfect if you only have five or ten minutes to read at a time. I think that novel in verse would be a great way to tell scary stories too but I had trouble finding any (and no action-adventure poetry either! Someone should write that!)

If writing poetry is more your thing (and if so I bow down to you), then I really love the magnetic poetry site where you can make virtual magnetic poetry. You can play online here with a bunch of different editions.

If you do write poetry, please consider submitting something for our writing competition Power of the Pen. You can find out all the details here!

Power of the Pen: Deadline extended

For those of you scrambling to finish your poems and short stories by the end of the month, you can breathe a little easier. The deadline for Power of the Pen has been extended to August 7th at 5 p.m.

(For those of you not in the know, Power of the Pen is Hamilton Public Library's annual teen writing competition. You can win prizes up to $100 and there's a nifty awards night at the end of November. For more details, click on the image or the link above).

Best of luck to those already entered and to those still trying to figure out if that semi-colon belongs there.

Power of the Pen!

The deadline for Power of the Pen, HPL's annual writing competition, is coming up! If you haven't submitted writing so far, you have until July 31st. Check out the teen page for more information and to fill out an entry form. You can also read last year's winning entries. If you're on facebook and want to keep up to date with PoP, you can join our group.

Best of luck to everyone who has entered so far! I hope that $100 prize is yours!