The Annual Red Wheelbarrow Children's Writing Contest

Its that time of the year once again when children have a chance to show off their writing skills with the annual Red Wheelbarrow Children's writing contest. The deadline for this year is the 1st of April.

Here below are the newly updated rules for the contest. Please make sure that your entries correspond to the rules in order to be included in the contest.


1) The Red Wheelbarrow contest is open to all school-aged children (5-18) in Paris and its surrounding suburbs who write in English. The contest is for children enrolled in Grande section de l’école maternelle (Kindergarten) through Terminale (12th grade/class level or senior year of high school).

2) Only ONE story per person may be submitted.

3) Your story must be original and written by you, with a beginning, middle, and end.

4) NEW!!! In 2008 stories will ONLY be accepted electronically (by e-mail) to save trees. Please include the information listed on the following cover page in the BODY of your e-mail message so we can clearly identify your story. Just COPY and PASTE the lines listed and FILL IN your own personal information. Then type your class level in the SUBJECT LINE of your e-mail message. (For example, SUBJECT: Red Wheelbarrow Writing Contest Entry, 4th GRADE.) You MUST include this information.

5) ATTACH your story to the e-mail as a DOCUMENT/TEXT file with the TITLE of your story as the name of the file – DO NOT type your name anywhere on the story. We MUST receive an anonymous copy of the story itself attached to your e-mail, or it will be rejected. When we receive your entry, we will send you a return confirmation of receipt. If you do not receive this confirmation, we may not have received your story. So be sure to double-check!

6) No hand-written stories will be accepted; if you can’t type, please have someone help you.

7) While we love art, please do not illustrate your stories. This is a writing contest only. Stories with art or wild type and colors will be disqualified.

8) Stories must be TYPED 12 POINT TIMES NEW ROMAN or COURIER, and DOUBLE-SPACED. Be sure to follow the formatting guidelines in the attached WRITING SAMPLE and TYPE your story, with one-inch margins, EXACTLY like in the sample.

9) Stories should be fresh and written after 2 September 2007.

10) If you must use sensitive language, please use symbols to represent this (i.e., &%$#!); otherwise your story risks being rejected. All ages read the winning stories. Thanks for your understanding.

11) Story word length limits per grade:
K-5th Grade (GS through CM2): 750 words MAXIMUM. (If it’s longer, it will be rejected.)
Middle school-High school (collège through lycée): 1,000 words MAXIMUM. (If longer, it will be rejected.)

12) Stories MUST be received by 1 April 2008. Stories received after 1 April 2008 will be disregarded.

13) No work will be returned. Only e-mail submissions will be accepted.

14) There is no entry fee.

15) Winners are announced at the Awards Party on Saturday, May 31st, 2008, where Jack Gantos will be our Master of Ceremonies! Authors are STRONGLY encouraged to attend.

16) Questions? Please contact RWContest@scbwifrance.com