{"id":2650,"date":"2015-07-10T14:40:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T14:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torontowots.wordpress.com\/?p=2650"},"modified":"2015-08-14T15:48:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T15:48:24","slug":"festival-news-the-word-on-the-street-showcases-youth-literary-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/festival-news-the-word-on-the-street-showcases-youth-literary-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival News: The Word On The Street Showcases Youth Literary Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Word On The Street Toronto will be providing more opportunities than ever for teens to share and grow their literary passion and creativity at The Word On The Street\u2019s Youth Launchpad<\/strong>, a new stage debuting at the festival\u2019s Harbourfront Centre<\/strong> location on September 27th<\/sup>, 2015.<\/p>\n

Hosted for its first year in 2014 at the Toronto International Book Fair, the Inspire Teen Reads book pitch competition<\/strong> will find a new home at The Word On The Street. Organized entirely by teenagers themselves, Inspire Teen Reads challenges 13 to 18-year-old competitors to convince a panel of publishing industry expert judges and the audience to pick up the books they will champion through 5-minute prose, poetry, or spoken word pitches.
\n\u201cInspire Teen Reads breaks the stereotype of the quiet bookworm and gives students like me a chance to voice our passion for books,\u201d says 2014 first place winner Ioana Burtea. \u201cFrom reciting Seussian rhymes in front of my favourite childhood authors, to spending hours talking with my fellow competitors about contemporary fiction, I loved every moment!\u201d<\/p>\n

Video or written submissions are welcome from August 15th<\/sup> to September 17th<\/sup>. \u00a0More information can be found at www.inspireteenreads.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"2014<\/a>

2014 winner Ashley Ash<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Youth Launchpad will also showcase the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Student Nonfiction Writing Contest. <\/strong>Drawing from the prestigious $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers\u2019 Trust Prize for Nonfiction guidelines, the student contest aims to inspire talented young writers to pursue their craft. The grand prize is $2,500 and a trip to Toronto to attend the annual nonfiction prize gala, as well as $1,000 for the winner\u2019s school. The Writers\u2019 Trust receives 400 submissions annually from grade 9 \u2013 12 students across Canada. 2014 winner Ashley Ash<\/strong> will read from her powerful essay \u201cNo One\u2019s Girl,\u201d<\/a> about her experience growing up in foster care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to celebrate our talented student contest winner on The Word On The Street youth stage. As she shares her winning work, we hope other young writers find themselves inspired to pursue their craft,\u201d says Mary Osborne, Writers\u2019 Trust of Canada Executive Director.\u00a0 Visit writerstrust.com\/students<\/a> for full contest details.<\/p>\n

\"BAM!<\/a>

BAM! Youth Poetry Slam<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Visitors to The Word On The Street\u2019s Youth Launchpad can also see returning festival favourites BAM! Youth Poetry Slam<\/a><\/strong>, led by the award winning spoken word artist Patrick de Belen<\/strong>. Local teen talent will also be invited to jump on stage and share their spoken word in the Youth Spoken Word Showcase<\/strong> for poets between the ages of 12 to 19. Those interested in participating can visit the festival\u2019s website<\/a> for more information, or email programming@thewordonthestreet.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Word On The Street’s Youth Launchpad is supported by funding from the Celebrate Ontario<\/a> program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Word On The Street Toronto will be providing more opportunities than ever for teens to share and grow their literary passion and creativity at The Word On The Street\u2019s Youth Launchpad, a new stage debuting at the festival\u2019s Harbourfront Centre location on September 27th, 2015. Hosted for its first year in 2014 at the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2853,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions\/2853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}