Drumroll, please!
Awards for the Youth Writing Contest
go to the following authors, in these categories:

Ages 7-10:
$100 ~ Isabel Letts, age 10, for “Missing”
$50 ~ Luxi Bullock, age 8, for “Super Cats”
 
Ages 11-13:
$100 ~ Emma Letts, age 12, for “Breaking the Curse”
$50 ~ Ada Mack, age 12, for “Mystical”
 
Ages 14-17:
$100 ~ Jessica Tisdale, age 17, for “Feline Friends”
$50 ~ Elsa Meyer, age 14, for “Mini Vacation to Earth”
 
Ages 18-22:
$100 ~ Oliver Elliot, age 22, for “Butterflies”
$50 ~ Paige Trevarrow, age 20, for “Archie the Dragon”
 
All stories are less than 1,000 words and have a bookstore connection! We are now at work on publishing a chapbook of this short fiction and will let you know when it’s available for sale. All proceeds will go to support Youth Programming at Lincoln City Libraries.
 
We are also planning to celebrate these authors at a Book Signing this fall, date TBA!
 
Thanks to all who submitted work – our judges had a difficult task.
Please continue to create and write!
 
Many thanks to our judges, who are not, and have never been, employees of A Novel Idea Bookstore. Judges did not receive any author information – only the stories themselves. We appreciate their time and deliberation very much!
 
Also, thanks to Izzy Sheesley, age 18, for this wonderful artwork! <3

About this Contest

Posted April, 2021:
In January 2021, we received a generous donation from a Book Club whose members live as far away as New York City and Germany. Their sweet card told us how much they appreciated our bookstore. It said that they knew that the pandemic was a challenging time for us – and they meant for us to use the check “however we saw fit.” This kind gesture moved us to tears.

After some thought, we decided that this would be a fitting way to use their gift.

We want to encourage imagination in young people & create a book with the most exceptional stories in each age category. We want to support other locals like Artist Izzy Sheesley, hired for promotional artwork; Red Rebel Media, hired to develop our online submission form; and Goldenrod Printing, hired to publish the chapbook. We love to contribute to our community – and selling the books to benefit the library is right up our alley. We’re especially excited about the possibility of celebrating with our community at a Book Signing Event in mid/late July.

Authors, keep these things in mind as you write:
*Stories submitted in this contest can be any genre, as long as they are set in our bookstore.
*The chapbook we’ll publish will have readers of all ages. Please keep your stories PG.
*Entries MUST be limited to 1,000 words – Flash Fiction!

*Note that by submitting these stories, all authors agree that their submissions may be published – in their entirety or in part – on this website or on our social media platforms. Those stories will be credited with the author’s name and age.

*Authors chosen for publication will be contacted via the email address they provide with their submission. A Novel Idea Bookstore will not use contact information provided by authors for any other purpose.

*Contest judges are not currently, nor have ever been, employed by A Novel Idea Bookstore.