Joy of the Pen

JOPThere once was a writer from Nantucket
who ran around town with a bucket,
and when asked, “why do you carry that thing?”
she just shook her head and said, “Do you not have any imagination?”

It’s just my first draft. I know, I have a lot of work to do. I only have until October 10, to polish my piece. What am I talking about? Well, on September 1, 2015, the Topsham Public Library began accepting submissions for the Third Annual Joy of the Pen Writing Competition.

We are fortunate to live in a community, and in a state, where writers of all levels abound, and we celebrate that here. Joy of the Pen is open to year-round Maine residents, and the categories are: poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. There is also a category for teen-aged writers, and new for this year – Maine-related non-fiction.

Not only do we live in a community of writers, we live in a community that supports and encourages writers. We want to thank our sponsors: The Cryer sponsors the Verdi L Tripp Award for fiction, the Margaret F. Tripp Award for Poetry, and the Richard F. Snow Award for Nonfiction; Just Write Books sponsors the Maine-Related Nonfiction Award; the TPL Teen Room sponsors the TPL Teen Scene Award, and the Friends of the Topsham Public Library sponsors the Honorable Mention Awards in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Joy of the Pen would not be possible without the support of our sponsors. Please, check them out – see what they are about and thank them for their support.

Well, I need to go sharpen my pencil and get back to work. If you would like to submit your work, you can do so here.

 

 

Here are the answers to last week’s quiz – I know you all have been holding your breath-

1. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

5. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

6. Watership Down by Richard Adams

7. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

8. The Crow Road by Iain Banks

9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

10. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

11. The Once and Future King by T.H. White

12. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

14. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

15. The Gunslinger by Stephen King

And if you identified The Crow Road as containing Emma’s favorite first line, you get 10 bonus points!