Dirt road (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Who is sweet and innocent in Beeville?

The pine and oak trees that are as

old as dust with no leaves.  The drought

has been tough. The cattle have no

grass, and the little league fields

are beginning to look like dirt roads.

The drought has definitely not been

sweet and innocent, sweet and innocent

like my old and gray, dark-skinned

grandma who lives among the winding back

roads. Dirt roads winding like snakes among

the brush, filled in with worn-down gravel.

There’s nothing here but a few houses

made of petrified wood, scattered among

the flat grassland where the ranchers

let their herds graze, undisturbed.

By Benito, 10th grade

By Kaitlin, 15

Purple Songs Can Fly Project (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kaitlin participates in the Writers in the Schools (WITS) program at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center.  She turned her poem “Mirrors” into a song through the wonderful Purple Songs Can Fly program.  Click here to hear Kaitlin’s song “Mirrors.”

ELIGIBILITYHigh school and community college students, 14-25 years old are eligible for this contest.

WINNERS RECEIVE

The top 10 biographies will be selected by a jury pool of prominent biographers and narrative nonfiction writers. These 10 winners will each be invited as guests of The Mayborn to attend the most renowned narrative nonfiction conference in the country, The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, TX, July 20- 22, 2012. The award also includes each winner selecting a teacher at his or her school to join him or her at the Mayborn Conference. The award includes registration, hotel and meals for the students and their teachers (20 people total). Transportation costs are the responsibility of the winners and their teachers.

Winners will have their biographies evaluated and critiqued in a workshop held Friday, July 20, starting at 9 a.m. and concluding at 4 p.m. The workshop will be conducted by James McGrath Morris, author of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power, and executive director of Biographers International Organization. The top 10 winners will also have their biographies published by The Dallas Morning News. The winners will be honored at the Mayborn Conference’s Literary Lights Gala on Saturday evening, July 21. All activities are held in the conference hotel. See details on the conference at: http://journalism.unt.edu/maybornconference.

CONTEST DETAILS

In considering the subject of your biography, keep in mind that we’re looking for a factual account of the life of a little-known person, living or past, who left a deep and lasting legacy in his or her community. You are responsible for the research and writing of the biography. You may receive help, advice and counsel from your teachers, parents and other adults on the research. Contest sponsors are providing handouts on the biographers craft to help you prepare your biographies. You may also obtain assistance in typing your paper, but the writing, thoughts and conclusions must be your own.

The biography may not have been previously published anywhere. Sources of information, including direct quotations, must be cited using either Kate L. Turabian, Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations or The Chicago Manual of Style.

Submissions should be printed single sided, paginated, double spaced and set with one-inch margins. The biography cannot exceed 20 pages, double spaced, or 5,250 words. Please use Times New Roman style, 12-point type. Please include a cover sheet that lists the title of the biography and the date.

No identification should be on any pages of the submission.

Your application and submission must be sent in the following two ways:

Hard-copy application and submission:

• Two hard copies of your submission – printed, unstapled and in two separate folders
• One hard copy of your application – signed in blue ink

Electronic submission:

• One electronic copy of the submission only (Word Document only) – submitted via e-mail

Photo by curlywurlygurly

There is a photo of me fishing with my grandpa,

standing by the water, throwing the rod,

cows eating grass behind us.

There is a photo of me talking to him,

surrounded by my family, smiling,

pictures of past generations on the wall.

There is a photo of me visiting him in the hospital.

He wanted to be in his own bed.

There is not a photo of me saying goodbye to him,

Grandpa lying on a bed,

eyes closed,

trying to sing an old song.

By Ramiro, 12th grade

_MG_4614 “Fire-Escape” (Photo credit: Michael Menard)

• Paste your poem or story into an e-mail message and send it to
  contests – at – mitaliperkins.com. I will not open attachments.
• Proofread thoroughly and keep your presentation simple. Entries with spelling, grammar or punctuation errors and funky characters/fonts may be disqualified without notice. Do not include any clip art, images, or photos with your entry. Words only, please. Fiction longer than 1000 words will not be considered.
• Include your name, age, and e-mail address in your e-mail. Also include your countr(ies) of origin. You and/or ONE of your birth parents must have been born outside North America. If you were born in Puerto Rico and are now living in one of the states or Canadian provinces, you qualify.
• Current U.S. or Canadian residents only please, and previous winners are not eligible.