MANY VOICINGS: IN TRANSLATION
- Who: (note, by age, not by grade) Ages 5-8, 9-10, 11-13, 14-18. Also taking submissions from adults (age 19 and up), but please remember this is for a mixed-age audience. Must be a resident of Lane County, Oregon.
- Postmark deadline: February 1, 2021
- Winners notified by March 7, 2021
- Winners receive prizes from local businesses, a free workshop with bi-lingual, award-winning author Gary Soto, who flies in from California to spend two days with us. Winners also read at the Glitterary Word Festival’s Winners’ Reception on Saturday, April 28, in the Eugene Public Library and are published in YWA’s creative writing journal, UpStarts, May 2021.
This year's theme is "Many Voicings: In Translation"
Many cultures or many voices make up our community. Lane County is home to multi-cultural and trans-cultural traditions, making our community a richly varied creative source for writers.
Possible inspirations: Click here for a PDF of writing samples and literary examples. Be sure to also read through the list below:
- Gary Soto’s books: http://www.garysoto.com/
- The Tree Is Older Than You Are: Bilingual Poems & Stories from Mexico gathered by Naomi Shihab Nye.
- Rose Where Did You Get That Red, Kenneth Koch (chapters eight and ten).
- Teachers & Writers Magazine, Spring 2011, translation: writing ideas on the art and practice of translation (http://www.twc.org/publications/magazine/magazine-sample).
- Homophonic translations use a poem or passage from a story in a foreign language that writers can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate the sound into English (e.g., French "blanc" to blank or "toute" to toot).
- Charles Bernstein in the "Johnny Cake Hollow" suite and Lewis Carroll in the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll use sound—homophonic inspiration for original writing.
- Compose a poem or other work into a different dialect. Include lingo, slang, or text messaging using the web based dialect engine, http://rinkworks.com/dialect/ (Writing example: Nathan Kageyam's translation of Pound's "The Return" into Hawaiian Creole English.)
- Multiple translations (Russian, Korean, Spanish…) of a single poem or passage can instigate original work. Try the "Lost in Translation" "Babel" or other web-based translation engines. (Writing example: Bergvall's poem setting of multiple translations for a passage of Dante's Divine Comedy.)
- Write a poem or story that repeats a favorite word or phrases from another language. 1.) You may let the context give the word or phrase meaning. 2.) Or choose to define a little bit more of the meaning and or significance of a phrase each time it is repeated so that by the end the reader understands the character, culture or phrase a little more fully.
- Bi-lingual List Poems, How-To Writing, Memories and Invitations: Use a mix of two languages and list things to do, or list flowers, rocks, colors… Write down a memory or a list of memories. Create a list of how to behave at different events, make a list of things ‘I don’t understand’ or of things that leave and come again, or write a list of questions using The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda as a starting point. Write a how-to list or an invitation for something you either love or hate doing…
Guidelines
- Have fun and use your imagination making sure non-English-American words(s), translated, mistranslated or left in the original language play a significant inspiration or element in the story or poem. All writing genres welcome.
- Your entry should be less than 600 words, and no smaller than size 12 font if typed.
- Be sure to include name, age (not grade), home phone number & address, as well as the school you attend.
- Adults need not put age, but indicate that you are an adult writer.
- Keep a copy for yourself; we won’t be able to return your work.
- Send to YWA Contest, P.O. Box 51538, Eugene, OR 97777 or email:
Questions: E: T: 541-485-7777
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