Word Out 2012

Shout Out to Word Out! and win an e-Reader.

You've got opinions. We're ready.  

Tell us what you think of Word Out and get entered to win a Sony e-Reader.  It's the last prize draw for 2012 - yikes! So go for it.  I mean, really go for it, ya know.

 Thanks for taking the survey and telling us your thoughts on Word Out! 

Random winner of the Sony e-Reader will be contacted.

Craving weird fiction? Want more? Teen Reads are here!

Rats. Word Out's over. School's back. Wah Wah.

So we've got Teen Reads to keep you going - if you want to immerse yourself in dystopic, post-apocalyptic fiction - we have a bunch of amazing titles!  

Want another flavour? A gazillion other lists - like Banned Books, Fight the Power, Boy Meets Book, LGBTQ and others are there too.     

Looking for more? The latest is at

 

 

 

 

And if you're a writer, comix drawer, film lover or art-ish in anyway - be sure to sign up for Young Voices All-Day Bonanza (conference) - where profesisonal writers, film makers, and more will lead workshops to help you - yes YOU - develop your own creative prowess.

It's rad and it's totally free. October 13th. North York Central Library.

 

 

Goodbye until 2013!

We on the Word Out team want to send a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the club this summer. We had a ton of fun reading your stories & poems, picking contest winners, meeting you at author events, and talking to you about the books you love. We hope that you had as much fun as we did!

So its time to say Au Revoir. Good luck everyone in the year to come, and we're looking  forward to seeing everyone again in 2013!

Our Grand Prize Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The last winner we will announce is Wolffur86, who is our grand prize winner for this summer's Creative Writing Challenge. Wolffur86's heartbreaking short story is based on postcard #2.

Sparrow trotted towards me. As usual, she stood up, wobbling slightly on her hind legs, and lightly set her paws on my paint chipped crossbar. I tipped obediently onto one side, leaning against the wooden fence. Just like before, she gently tested my tires, and spun the pedals, making sure the drive chain worked. But there was something about her eyes and the way she moved, that, even an old worn bike without brains like me, could tell something was wrong. She took a mighty leap and landed neatly onto my torn leather seat. She gripped my handlebars tightly with her paws. I turned my pedals. My wheels turned on the familiar gravel path, going faster and faster, the wind roared. Ah, how I loved to be ridden! Two wet drops fell onto my seat. Startled, I rang my bell twice, “Is it raining?” Sparrow didn’t answer. I rang my bell three times, then once, “What’s wrong, Sparrow?” She let out a sad sigh. I slowed, and then stopped. Where were we? Sparrow leaped down, and nuzzled my handle bars, “The flat-faces and I are leaving.” I rang in alarm, “Where?” “To a South Carolina,” she stared at the floor, “but you aren’t going with us.” “But why?” I was shocked, “I’ve been a part of this family as long as you!” “I know,” she stroke my front tire with her tail, “they didn’t want to bring along a…a piece of junk like you. T-they were going to throw you in the dump. This was the best I could do.” My heart split in two, “So this is goodbye?” “The animals will visit you.” “But it won’t be the same!” “I’m sorry,” Sparrow padded away. I watched sadly as she grew smaller and smaller, until I couldn’t see her anymore.

Our Second Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The second winner we will announce is tdfyukyh, who wrote a poem inspired by the first postcard.

A snowflake in the sky,
Or a tear drop in my eye.

A blade of grass in my pot,
Or a single tree in the lot.

They’re so beautiful and nice,
But sometimes they’re beauty does not suffice.

For a snowflake in a storm,
Does not stand out in any way shape or form.

A tear drop when I'm crying,
Gets brushed away and goes flying.

With its brothers a blade of grass,
Are lovely to see, but are seen as a mass.

A tree alone, is mighty and tall,
But a tree in the forest is a tree, and that’s all.

In the midst of a crowd, I’m one of you,
But alone at my mirror I’m unique, and that’s true

Our First Creative Writing Challenge Winner!

Over the summer, we on the Word Out team got to read some truly astounding writing, submitted to our Creative Writing Challenge. Some entries made us laugh out loud; some gave us pause. All were totally impressive however, and it was both a pleasure and a huge challenge to choose winners.

At first, we were only going to have one prize for the contest, but seeing how many submissions we got, we decided that we'd add two more. For the next few days, we're going to be sharing the winning entries with you. You can check out all of the amazing stories, poems and essays however, by visiting the Creative Writing Challenge page.

The first winner we will announce is Hanan, who wrote the moving story Unexpected Best Friend, inspired by Postcard #3.

Unexpected Friend

Ever since John Baker was a baby he always saw a person that nobody else saw. It was always the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night. When he first learned to speak, instead of those common question children would ask at his age he would ask his parents different questions, like, who is that person following me? Why does he do that? Everyday he would ask his parents those questions. Finally, they decided to go to the doctor but he said exactly what they knew he would, he said “it is all apart of growing up”, but his parents knew it was more then that. They watched him for a while but never saw anything weird anymore; he had stopped asking those questions. Although the questions had stopped the person never went away. He would see it everywhere he went. He really didn’t care. Years had pasted, he was now 10. He started to wonder who that person was. He talked to him, trying to learn more about him. He learned that his name was Harry Lord. He really liked harry, he started spending more time with him. He played with him at school (although his classmates called him a weird) and home (his parents saw but they gave up on caring a long time ago). They started to become really good friends, although that friendship may have looked weird it was the best friendship he ever had. He grew up, alongside his friend. He never cared if people stared, or thought he was crazy. One day, he went down to the photo booth across the street and took a picture to remember all the great times he had with his best friend.

Young Voices Conference 2012

The North York Central Library will host an annual youth event that focuses on the artistic and creative talents of the youth within the city of Toronto. The Young Voices Conference is organized by the Toronto Public Library with a focus on creating space for youth to get a chance to develop their creative skills and interests in a setting outside of the classroom with professionals from those fields.

This year the Young Voices Conference is attempting to think outside the box and the keynote speaker will be filmmaker Peter Stebbings. Peter is the writer and director of the film "Defendor" starring Woody Harrelson. Peter will be kicking off the conference with an address and will also be giving two seminars on creative writing with a focus on film making.

Other workshops include: graphic novels, spoken word poetry, urban fiction, photo-journalism(bring a camera), song writing, illustrations and spoken word with an open mic session. Also all involved participants will be leaving that day with an instant anthology of all the work that was created during the conference.

The conference is specifically for youth ages 12-19.

And it is FREE!

This is an all day event and space is limited so make sure that you pre-register by following this link:  www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/yvconference 

 The conference details are:

Saturday, October 13, 2012
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
North York Central Library
5120 Yonge Street
(North York Centre subway station)

Tasty Tomes Winner!

We had lots of delicious entries for our final Win a Book contest, where we asked you to tell us about  your favourite food description in a book. J.K. Rowling's writings of magical meals proved to be popular, and our winning entry from M.P. talked about some of their favourite discussions of dinner from the Harry Potter Series:

J.K Rowling puts a lot of food scenes in his books! I like the one where the students at Hogwarts drink pumpkin juice, and butter beer, she describes them so much! Even in the hunger games!

Congratulations, M.P! We'll be sending you a book shortly for your prize-winning entry! Those of you with eReaders might want to check out The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for more culinary inspiration.

Thanks to everyone else who participated! Remember, there's still one more chance to win a Word Out prize this summer! Enter our end-of-summer survey and tell us what you liked (or even what you hated!) about Word Out this year, for a chance to win an eReader.

 

Paranormal Contest Winner!

There are some seriously talented and imaginative writers out there who participate in Word Out! We were blown away by all of your entries for the Use Your Paranormal Imagination Contest, where you were asked to describe a way for vampires to be created and killed.

Choosing a winner was no easy task, but at the end of the day, we decided to award the prize to Rrrrrrr, for their amazing short story about Katie. Congratulations! You'll be recieving some prizes shortly!

You can check out Rrrrrrr's entry after the break. Remember, there's still one more chance to win a prize, by entering our end-of-summer survey to let us know what you thought of Word Out this year!

 

We don't want your $$ - teen fine forgivness coming

Miss getting your fines forgiven during WORD OUT?

Do not despair. Fine forgiveness for teens is coming soon.

Check torontopubliclibrary.ca/teens regularly and watch for the fine forgiveness button, coming sometime this fall... I can't say when. I'm not allowed. I could get in serious trouble already for telling you about this.

One is Not Enough - Contest Winner!

Once again, you have totally impressed me with your answers. I love seeing that I'm not the only one who gets hooked on a series and waits impatiently, and I was amazed that some of you also track release dates! You guys are hard core, seriously.

My favourite entry, though, was from Joseph, who not only told me what the series was and how ecited he was, but also wrote a bit about the books and even linked to the catalogue, in case some of you were looking for something good to read - now that's full service!

Thanks to everyone who entered for playing along - and look for more contests this week!