Rodolphine Young Award for Children’s Literature-Deadline to submit entries nears |24 March 2007

The Rodolphine Young Award was launched in August last year in honour of Seychellois writer Rodolphine Young. Young translated the fables of Jean de La Fontaine into Seychellois Creole and also customized them to the local culture so that children would better appreciate these stories. Senk Fab Lafontaine, translated in Kreol appeared in print for the first time in 1982.

The aim of the award is to encourage adult writers, poets as well as children to produce works of fiction and poetry for children and young adults.

It is hoped that the works will reflect as much as possible the life, culture, values, as well as the natural environment of the Seychellois child, including issues and challenges that young people face in our contemporary society.

The competition is open for children and adults and each age group has its own word limits for both poems and stories. The entries are to be in any one of the three national languages -- Creole, English and French. 

There are three different awards for which writers can participate. They include: Children Creative Writing, Children Literature Award for Fiction and Children Award for Poetry. 

The Children Creative Writing category requires participants aged 6 to 18 years to submit either one story or three poems on a single theme or three entirely different themes. There are 4 competitive categories for this competition: Category 1 (6-8 years), Category 2 (9 –12 years), Category 3 (13-15 years), and Category 4 (16 –18 years). Different prizes will be awarded to the winners of the various categories and these range from SR250 to SR3,000. 

The Children Literature Award for Fiction is open to all writers aged 18 and over and the stories and novels should be meant for children and young adults from the age of 3 to 18. In view of the age group it is important for writers to bear in mind the cultural, moral, ethical and spiritual values, including sentiments and positive beliefs.

This award has four main categories. They include picture story books for children between the ages of 3 and 5, short stories for children from 6 to 8 years, novels for children aged 9 to 12 years and novels for young adults aged 13 to 18. The award for the best story in each category will be a cash prize of SR5,000.

Last, but not least, the Children Award for Poetry is open for all writers aged 18 and above and writers are being required to submit a collection of 30 pages of poems in selected categories.
Writers for this award are allowed to participate in only one of the four categories: Category 1 involves poems for children aged between 3 and 5, Category 2 for children aged 6-8, Category 3 for 9-12 year-olds and the fourth and last category for children aged between 13 and 18 years.
   
The panel of judges who will determine the winners will be appointed by the Ministry of the Arts, Culture & Sports and they will judge the works based on a set of predetermined criteria. 

According to the director general for Policy Planning and Development in the Ministry of Arts, Culture & Sports, Peter Pierre-Louis, they have already received many entries to date.
 
“We are still encouraging people to write and submit their entries. It’s not too late to do so, the more people who participate, the better,” he said.

The organizers have decided that the award will be presented annually to writers, poets and children who are interested in assisting in the development of children’s literature in Seychelles. 

All entries must be mailed to:  Rodolphine Young Award, Children Literature Award for Poetry, Policy Planning and Development Section, P.O. Box 1383.

Those who require further information can contact the Policy Planning and Development Section within the Ministry of the Arts, Culture and Sports on telephone number 225477.