YA Aspiring Writer? Look no further...Contest deets here!

Are you currently working on a YA novel that you wish to be published? Maybe just need a little help? Have one written already, and just not sure where to go next? Why not enter this contest?!

Aspiring YA writers: win a literary agent or acclaimed author's feedback on your unpublished manuscript.

This rare opportunity is being offered to the six winners of an essay contest recently announced by the literacy charity Book Wish Foundation.

See http://bookwish.org/contest for full details.

Open to U.S. residents age 13+.

If you win the acclaimed author's feedback, who exactly could be critiquing your manuscript?

Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot
Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau
Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust
Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe
Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey's Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue

How to Enter

All that separates you from this prize is a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation's new YA anthology, What You Wish For.  Essays are due Feb. 1, 2012 and winners will be announced around Mar. 1, 2012.  If you win, you will have six months to submit the first 50 pages of your YA (or middle grade) manuscript for critique (which means you can enter the contest even if you haven't finished, or started, your manuscript).  You can even enter multiple times, with essays about more than one of the contest stories, for a chance to win up to six critiques.

If you dream of being a published YA author, this is an opportunity you should not miss.

Good luck and best wishes,

Logan Kleinwaks
President, Book Wish Foundation



  To enter, follow the instructions at http://bookwish.org/contest.



What You Wish For (ISBN 9780399254543, Putnam Juvenile, Sep. 15, 2011) is a collection of short stories and poems about wishes from 18 all-star writers: Meg Cabot, Jeanne DuPrau, Cornelia Funke, Nikki Giovanni, John Green, Karen Hesse, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Nate Powell, Sofia Quintero, Gary Soto, R.L. Stine, Francisco X. Stork, Cynthia Voigt, Jane Yolen.  With a Foreword by Mia Farrow.  Book Wish Foundation is donating 100% of its proceeds from the book to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to fund the development of libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad.