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There will be at least 20 winners in the inaugural Write Start essay writing competition, as RBC, Massy Stores and CinemaONE Ltd joined bmobile in bolstering the prizes at stake for young writers.
Write Start challenges Trinidad and Tobago-based students aged between 11 and 18 to show off their ideas and creative writing on selected topics. There are over TT$30,000 in cash prizes available, along with additional rewards.
For children ages 11-15, the assignment is to write a short, fictional story of 600-800 words with the title, ‘The day I met my local hero’. The plot and characters may be fictional but your ‘hero’ must be a real, living, local person.
The 16-18 group must write an essay of 800-1,000 words based on the following subject: ‘Describe the ways in which you think the first post-Covid-19 Carnival will be different from its predecessors’.
Participants must email their essays to editor@wired868.com and copy to writestartcontest@gmail.com by no later than midnight on Monday 1 November 2021.
Entries must have a cover page showing the writer’s name, date of birth and current school and class as well as a telephone contact number and email address for their parent or guardian. A telephone number for the school is also required.
There is no registration fee.
Wired868 will publish the 10 shortlisted stories from each category before the final winners are announced on 15 December 2021.
As previously stated, the cash prizes for each group are TT$6,000 (winner), TT$4,000 (runner-up), TT$2,000 (third place) along with an additional prize of TT$1,000 (most shared story).
Winners will receive TT$1,000 in cash with the rest of their prize money placed in bank accounts in their names and made available at the end of the school year. Along with the TT$6,000 cash prize, the two top writers will also get six-month mobile plans from bmobile and two 4DX gift certificates from CinemaONE.
However, Massy Stores now ensures that all 20 shortlisted writers will be rewarded, as the company offers gift cards for the 14 writers who do not get cash prizes.
There are also additional prizes for writers who address topics chosen by our sponsors, which will only be revealed after the deadline for submitting entries.
RBC have bolstered the available prizes too, while Customized Health Solutions sponsors one of the two Most Read prizes. Sean Powder, a United States-based businessman, is the main sponsor of the competition.
Write Start is also endorsed by the Ministry of Education and authorised by the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB).
Challenge yourself. Switch off your game console and see if you can articulate something worth sharing on the topic specified for your age-group. The cut-off date for calculating your age is the launch date of 28 September 2021.
Wired868’s patrons have ensured that it is worth your while.
Editor’s Note: All entries for the Write Start competition must be sent to editor@wired868.com and copied to writestartcontest@gmail.com. Good luck!
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