For young people - Open the Unusual Door Essay Contest

[msgadget]

To harvest literary excitement among teens and emphasize the vital connection between reading and writing, author and educator Barbara Summers, in association with Graphia, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin, is sponsoring the Open the Unusual Door Essay Contest. Open the Unusual Door: True Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans is an inspiring collection of autobiographical essays that teaches young people how to recognize the right door, open it, and find the strength to walk through it. “Nothing is more fascinating than true life stories”, says Barbara Summers, “what's yours?”

A first, second and third prize of $500, $300, and $200, respectively, will be awarded to the most compelling and best written essays by young people from ages 13 to 18.

Guidelines:
The contest is open to teens ages 13-18. Entrants should read Open the Unusual Door: True Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans edited by Barbara Summers, to help inform their essay. Entrants should respond to one of the following questions:

1) What essay in Open the Unusual Door interested you the most, and why?

2) How has someone you know opened the unusual door of challenge, adventure or success?

Entries must be typed, double-spaced and a maximum of 750 words. Entries must include the entrant’s name, age, grade, mailing address, telephone number, and email address (if applicable). Entries will not be returned. Mail entries to:

Open the Unusual Door Essay Contest
Park West Station
PO BOX 21044
New York, NY 10025

Deadline:
Entries must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2006. The final winners will be selected by Barbara Summers. The winners will be announced in May 2006.

Open the Unusual Door includes sixteen autographical essays from a diverse group of African Americans—some famous, like baseball great Derek Jeter, hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, former secretary of state Colin Powell, singer and actor Queen Latifah — and others perhaps less well known but equally well respected in their fields — astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson, journalist Lynne Duke, and fencer Peter Westbrook. Together these personal narratives provide an inspirational and thought-provoking anthology that demonstrates how to recognize the many faces of opportunity. From reading these true life stories, teens will find the power within to recognize that when one door closes, another one opens.

http://www.opentheunusualdoor.com/contest.htm

Edited to add website