Students get a new short story competition with the launch of School One and Goat Hill's Write Rhode Island

Johnston Sun Rise ·

With September marking the kick-off of School One and Goat Hill’s inaugural Write Rhode Island short fiction competition for Rhode Island students in grades eight to 12, the group is hoping to get local youth excited and spur entries by hosting free creative writing workshops at libraries and organizations through Rhode Island.

The goal of Write Rhode Island is to promote and celebrate student by incorporating Rhode Island as a theme in a creative piece of prose. The competition is open to all public, private, parochial or home-school students throughout the Ocean State. Winners in various categories by grade level will receive prizes, awards, and an opportunity to be published. The deadline to submit a piece is Saturday, Dec. 10, and additional information and full competition guidelines can be found at school-one.org. Winners will be announced in spring 2017.

As part of the competition, the free creative writing workshops will be led by authors and teaching artists who will provide support to spur student writing and participation in the contest. The list of the workshops can be found on School One’s website, school-one.org.

“As educators, we understand the value of giving students an opportunity to write for their own purposes and in their own voice,” said Jennifer Borman, head of school for School One. “This type of writing involves self-expression and sharing an authentic view of students’ perspective of the larger world – we’re really excited about these workshops and eager to read the stories that are submitted.”

Write Rhode Island is being presented by School One and Goat Hill. School One is a small, independent high school in Providence that provides an arts-intensive, college preparatory education to an array of students from across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Goat Hill is the coming together of three Providence writers, Ann Hood, Hester Kaplan and Taylor Polites with the collective goal of producing and expanding literary events across the state.

The competition has been made possible thanks to support from BankRI, Hasbro Pawtucket Credit Union, the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Rhode Island Department of Education, the RI State Council on the Arts, teachers, librarians and educators from around the state. For more information, including a full list of available workshops, visit school-one.org or contact Diana Champa at 401-331-2497 and dianac@school-one.org.