Cape Town: The City libraries are hosting a writing competition once again for the children aged between 9 and 13. The City of Cape Town will announce the winners at the Open Book Festival, later this year.
The young authors of Cape Town wanted open entries for magical writing competition. In year 2024, the writing competition focused on environmental awareness. It garnered entries from 100 young people.
The Library and Information Services of the City of Cape Town has rolled out the competition once more, considering last year’s success. Primary schools, book clubs and children in the selected age group are encouraged to participate.
Moreover, the entries will open on Monday, May 05, 2025 and will close on Friday, August 08, 2025. The theme of this year will focus majorly on mysterious box where the writer has to imagine that they are exploring their school or local library. When they stumble upon a mysterious box hidden away between the shelves.
The box has strange symbols and emits a faint humming sound and participants have to write a short story about what happens when they open up the box. The participants are allowed to write their stories in selected three languages i.e. English, Afrikaans or isiXhosa.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health – Francine Higham said that writing provides a creative outlet and helps children to organise their thoughts and emotions. By putting pen to paper, they will learn a new way to communicate and use the written language to express themselves.
The children are creative with vivid imaginations and she clarified that she is sure that the judges will have a hard time picking a winner. Higham said that she wants to encourage all the learners to participate as they could very well write their way to a future as authors.
There’s a specific criteria to the writing competition judgement which the officials have considered. The word limit has to be between 500 and 1500 words. The story must be original and no AI generated stories will be accepted. The story must be handwritten, and can be in the form of picture book, short or long story or also a graphic novel. Drawings and illustrations are also encouraged.
The stories must include the key elements such as a mysterious box in a library setting, a magical adventure and a relatable main character or object.
Some tips have been also released, which should be remembered such as use your imagination and be creative. The story must be an original work. The points will be given for illustrations or drawings. Most importantly they should have fun.
Notably, the prize-giving will take place during the Open Book Festival on September 06, 2025. The learners or schools can submit their stories on the official website or at their nearest library.