Everybody knows how well the Amplify Youth Festival fosters young artists, musicians, and spoken word performers.
But where are the writers?
Youth festival associate Kathleen Bell says that, this time around, the young writers are going to get their big debut in a spine-tingling way. They’re making a book.
She announced the call for submissions for the upcoming first-ever Amplify Anthology, a publication that she hopes will include as many young scribes and storytellers as possible.
“There are some art forms that really fit well into the weekend and there are some art forms that we’ve struggled to integrate. Long form pieces of writing and filmmaking… those things take just a little bit longer, they take more technology. They don’t fit into the two days very well.”
The filmmakers, she noted, have since been accommodated outside of the autumn weekend fest. Members of the public can watch their series of videos that are available for viewing on Amplify TV, through the city’s website.
As for the literary artists, organizers were able to secure a grant from the Edmonton Community Foundation in order to fund the first anthology. Now all she needs to do is wait for the submissions to roll in.
Bell, a writer herself, is thrilled to be able to give other young writers their big breaks.
“I’m particularly excited about this. The first time you see your name in print … it’s so cool. It’s a validation that someone else has read your work and said, ‘we’re going to print it.’”
One of the most valuable aspects of Amplify is that it works to give young artists that encouragement to take the risk to create art and then put it out there for others to appreciate.
“It can be completely terrifying to present your work to someone. I just want writers and visual artists out there to know that it is nerve-wracking. We totally understand. But it also is an amazing feeling to put your work out there.”
But no book would quite be complete without some pictures or photographs. Visual artists are invited to submit artwork as well. If two people partnered up for an illustrated story, all the better. If someone had a great mini graphic novel, there’s an excellent submission right there.
The book is scheduled for a special launch in late September at the St. Albert Public Library. More details on that will come after the summer. More details, including the submission forms for both writers and visual artists who want to be in the book, can be found at www.stalbert.ca/exp/amplify.
The request for submissions is open to all genres and subject matters but the applicants are subject to a juried process wherein works might be declined if the content is deemed inappropriate for the festival.
Writers can submit more than one piece of writing, each between 10 and 2,000 words and in any genre or form from short stories, poetry, personal essays, and experimental writing.
Visual artists are asked to submit one to three digital images. The submission deadline is Monday, June 19 at 11:59 p.m.
The call is open to anyone in Grade 7 up to age 21 who lives in St. Albert and its surrounding area including Morinville, Sturgeon County, Edmonton, and Parkland County.
