Young Writers Competition

Deadline Approaching

DANBURY — The entry deadline for the Eighth Annual Young Writers Competition is February 1.

Ravi Shankar, poet-in-residence and assistant professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, will be the keynote speaker for the Eighth Annual IMPAC-CSU Young Writers dinner June 5 at the Litchfield Inn.

Prof Shankar is the author of Instrumentality, a collection of poems published by Cherry Grove Collections in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has served as a judge in the competition for several years. Building on the tradition begun by novelist Wally Lamp, Prof Shankar will conduct a workshop for young writers prior to the annual dinner.

Prof Shankar is also founding editor of the online journal of the arts Drunken Boat (www.DrunkenBoat.com).

About 3,000 young writers have competed in the program, which has awarded $100,000 since 1998.

Entry forms are available at www.CTYoungWriters.org.

Margaret Brown, the Young Adult Librarian at C.H. Booth Library in Newtown, can also help with information.

Poets and writers in each of Connecticut’s eight counties will win $1,000 prizes. The top poet and writer from that set of winners will receive an additional $1,000 at the annual dinner.

Regional ceremonies will begin in April, with the closest dinner on Wednesday, April 20, at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

In addition, workshops for young writers will be held at Central CT State University on April 30.

This event is sponsored by The Connecticut Review, the nationally-renowned literary journal published by the CSU System. The Connecticut Review will publish the works of 2004 statewide prose champion Emily Dyes of Montville and 2004 statewide poetry champion Alexandra Regenbogen of Litchfield in the Spring 2005 edition.