High school kids have the chance to prove their writing potential thanks to a contest sponsored by the Friends of Lovejoy Library at SIUE.

The 12th Annual High School Writer's Contest is a contest for juniors and seniors enrolled in southwestern Illinois high schools from Madison, St. Clair, Washington, Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Green, Jersey, Macoupin, Monroe and Montgomery counties.

Writers will have the opportunity to win prizes in one of three categories: fiction, nonfiction and poetry. First prize for each category is $500, second prize is $300 and third prize is $100.

Information packets have been sent to high schools in each of the specified counties and deadlines are Feb. 17. Winners will be notified April 1, and prizes will be awarded April 26 at an awards banquet at SIUE. All participants will receive certificates of recognition.

For further information, students should talk to their English teachers or principals, or contact the Friends of Lovejoy Library at 650-2730.

Writing Contests

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"Blizzard Entertainment and Xfire have just announced the largest ever machinima contest with over $10,000 in prizes from AMD, Hypernia, Creative Labs, XFX, D-Link, Corsair, ZBoard and Time Games. The contest involves entrants producing movies using the Blizzard Entertainment MMORPG World of Warcraft game engine to create imaginative movies in the three main categories of Dance, Comedy and Drama. Six prizes will be awarded for each category. An additional Twenty prizes will be awarded in special categories including Best Music, Best Dialog, Best Action Scene, Best Pun or Line, and Best Editing and Special Effects. A special prize from Hypernia will also be awarded to a selected movie. Entries must be submitted by January, 21st 2006." Good luck to folks who decide to enter. If you aren't already familiar with it, the Curse Guild's Blackwing Lair: The Movie may give you an idea of what is possible with WoW Machinima.

Writing Contests

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From the Article :The board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes said Wednesday that newspapers can now enter material published online in each category of the prestigious competition, an acknowledgment of the growing influence of Internet journalism.

Since 1999, newspapers have been able to include online material as part of submissions in the public-service category, regarded as the most prestigious of the 14 Pulitzer categories. Now, newspapers will be able to submit online content in all categories, though only two -- breaking news and breaking news photography -- will allow material solely published on the Web. In the other categories, Web content must be paired with something published in print.

(Read the rest here)

Does this sound snooty/pathetic to anyone else? Personally I really don't care about the Pulitzer prize, because it is not something that I'm going to get or even be considered for. In my mind it has always been a mark on the horizon to reach for, or a level of comparison to judge by; but I don't believe such coarse distinctions regarding what is true news and what is not based on the whether the story is on a webpage or at the bottom of a bird cage in the morning, is worthy of its nature. To me this smacks of tails wagging dogs. It just cries out that the members of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are more concerned with the lobby attentions of ol'boy newsman, than the merits of an article or news story.

If we spent more time in the areas of news integrity and less time trying to keep good ol boy industry from sinking into mires of their own creation, we would have better news, and less need of Pulitzer prizes. Of course I also believe that it is a bit hypocritical to want to take video games off the shelves because of violence, while leaving the shotguns in WalMart, so my thoughts may be way off base here.

Writing Contests

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