Introduction
For general information and specific instructions for each of the contests that students and teachers prepare BEFORE the Festival, see any of the links below.
- Awards and Contests (general introduction)
- Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest
- Festival Art Contest
- Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Award
- English Festival Graphic Essay Contest
- English Festival Writing Award for Teachers
Awards and Contests
Special certificates, T-shirts, books, pins, notebooks, and money are given as prizes for Festival competitions. All prizes are awarded at a ceremony in Kilcawley Center from 3:15–3:45 p.m. on each day of the in-person Festival. Prize winners will come on to the stage to receive their awards and the congratulations of the author-lecturer, the visiting lecturer, Board members, and Committee members. The prize-winning Candace Gay Memorial Awards, the prize-winning Impromptu Writing essays, Journalism Workshop articles, and the English Festival Writing Award for Teachers are printed in A Festival of Writing, a copy of which is provided to each participating school the following fall.
Judging of all competitions which are held during the English Festival is done by members of the YSU English Department, area teachers, substitutes, librarians, administrators, retired teachers, and qualified parents. The Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest is judged by the Festival Committee itself, the English Festival Writing Award for Teachers competition by a specially selected committee. The Festival Art Contest and the Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Award are judged by English Festival committee members and representatives of the YSU Art and Music Departments respectively.
Before the Festival, judges read the Festival books for the grade level they will be jud
ging and participate in a training session at YSU on holistic and trait analysis scoring methods, systems of assessment perfected and used for numerous state and national writing tests. At the Festival, judges first evaluate papers holistically. The best papers are re-read, using trait scoring methods, and evaluated according to ideas, style, mechanics, and use of specific evidence from the books. Papers with the highest scores are declared the winners.
Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest
Candace Gay Memorial Awards, established in 1978 by Professors Thomas and Carol Gay in memory of their thirteen-year-old daughter, Candace McIntyre Gay, are given to junior and senior high school students who exhibit distinctive writing ability in the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest. More than $2,500 in prizes is distributed each year in the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest.
Candace Gay Memorial Essay Prompt
2024 Prompt:
Social media, content creators, and other influencers often encourage people to "live their best life." What are the key elements to living a best life? Drawing on examples from the lives represented by this year's English Festival reading list, explain the characteristics of living one's best life
Your entry will be judged by how well you:
- Establish a purpose for your entry.
- Organize and develop your ideas.
- Support your discussion with accurate and appropriate details from the book.
- Use language, including conventional grammar and spelling.
Your entry will not be considered unless you:
- Submit only one entry.
- Type or print your paper, double-spaced on unlined white paper, or handwrite your paper in ink on only one side of lined 8 1/2 x 11" white paper.
- Leave 1" margins on all sides, and number the pages.
- Write your paper with no help from your teacher, parents, or anyone else. Use only your own ideas about the book, and put those ideas in your own words.
- Enclose all direct quotations in quotation marks and cite page numbers in your text for those quotations.
- Limit your entry to 750-1000 words. (Papers that are significantly shorter or longer are disqualified).
- Create a title page that includes the following information - (Do not provide any of this information anywhere else in your essay):
- The title of your entry
- Your name (no nicknames or shortened forms of first names, please)
- Your full addres
- Your email address
- Your teacher's first and last name
- Your prinicipal's first and last name
- The full name of your school
At the bottom of the title page, write the following statement and sign your name beneath it:
I have received no direct help on this paper from my teachers, parents, or anyone else.
Below the statement printed above on your title page write the following statement and have your teacher sign his/her name beneath that:
This essay was not written as a class assignment, and I have not directly helped the student with this essay in any way.
Postmark your entry by February 23, 2024, and address it as follows:
English Festival
Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest
Department of English & World Languages
Youngstown State University
One Tressel Way
Youngstown, OH 44555
Festival Art Contest
All students at schools eligible for this year’s English Festival are invited to enter the Festival Art Contest by submitting a two-dimensional work of art. The submission may be no larger than 14 inches X 18 inches. Any submission of a 3-dimensional object will be disqualified. Students may submit only one entry. The entry must be the student’s original work, an artistic response to one of the current Festival books, which could be used by the publisher as a book cover or as promotional art. The student may not submit a piece of art that was created prior to reading the book named as inspiration from the current festival’s book list.
Each entry must be an original drawing, painting, or photograph, in any style, and may be vertical or horizontal in format. Entries will be judged on their originality, artistic merit, and appropriateness to the book being illustrated. If the intent is to produce a book cover, the student may preserve the original image by placing the book’s title and author’s name on an overlay. The entry cannot be copied from other artwork or photographs unless the photograph is one taken by the student (please tape to back of entry).
Entry must be accompanied by a separate sheet attached to the back of the artwork that states the student’s name, home address, email address, grade, school, and book being illustrated. Additionally, each student must attach an artist statement of no more than 250 words that explains how the artwork is inspired by (or reflective of) characters, settings, events, situations, themes, and/or moods of a book on this year’s English Festival reading list. The statement should explain stylistic intentions, chosen media, and form used.
Multiple prizes will be awarded for 7th–9th grades and for 10th–12th grades. We reserve the right to copy artwork for display on our web page/social media, for displays during the Festival, or in our publications, with credit to the artist.
Send entries and cover sheets by February 23, 2024, to:
English Festival Art Contest
Department of English and World Languages
Youngstown State University
One Tressel Way
Youngstown, Ohio 44555
Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Award
The Jeremy Salvner Memorial
Music Awards,
established by Gary, Kathy,
and Matthew Salvner in memory
of their late son and brother Jeremy,
are awarded to
studentsin grades 7-12
for original
musical compositions inspired by
one or more books on the English
Festival list.
Original musical compositions
may be submitted by individuals
or by groups of no more than five
(who will then share in any prize
awarded to the group) from a school registered for that year's Festival. Compositions
may be either vocal or
instrumental and must be no more
than ten minutes long.
Vocal Compositions: Vocal compositions must be
recorded (accompanied by any instrumentation) and submitted with written lyrics. While notated chord progressions in the lyrics and sheet music are optional, they are useful for the judges who evaluate your work. I
Instrumental Compositions: Instrumental works may be either live-produced or electronic (DAW-based) compositions. For live-produced compositions, provide a recording as well as a notated score or a chord progression sheet. You may use live musicians, electronic instruments, or a piece recorded into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). For electronic compositions, provide a recording and a written commentary describing the parameters used for each instrumental voicing track (e.g., bass track used an EQ to remove 150 Hz and added a distortion pedal with 30% fuzz). This commentary should explain, for example, if your composition was created from your own melodies or sounds or whether they were manipulations of parameters from a VST.
All compositions, vocal or instrumental, should be submitted as follows:
1. Submit your composition as an mp3, ACC, or WAV/AIFF audio file. (Noteflight or Make Music score files are not allowed.)
2. Include a title for your composition, the book(s) that inspired it, and the names, grades, email addresses, and schools of composers/performers, as well as their home mailing addresses (for possible prize distribution).
3. Also include a statement of no more than 250 words that explains how the composition is inspired by (or reflective of) characters, settings, events, situations, themes, and/or moods of a particular book or books on this year’s English Festival reading list.
Entries will be judged by a committee of YSU Dana School of Music faculty, other music professionals, and at least one member of the English Festival Committee. Separate prizes are given at the junior-high and senior-high levels. No professional musicians, including music teachers, may participate in the creation or production of a composition, including its musical accompaniment.
All entries will be judged according to the following criteria:
- Musicality of the composition
- Originality of the composition
- Effectiveness of the lyrics (in the case of vocal compositions)
- Clarity of the commentary explaining your work’s link to a Festival book or books
- Effectiveness in capturing events, situations, characters, themes, or moods in a Festival book or books.
Entries to the Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Awards may not be returned. We reserve the right to use excerpts of winning compositions on our website and in other English Festival publicity, with credit given to the artists.
If mailing CDs or flashdrive, send musical entries and accompanying essays by February 23, 2024, to:
English Festival
Jeremy Salvner Memorial Music Awards
Department of English and World Languages
Youngstown State University
One Tressel Way
Youngstown, OH 44555
The English Festival Graphic Essay Contest
The English Festival Committee will continue to sponsor a contest that we began in honor of the former National Ambassador of Young People's Literature Gene Luen Yang.
2024 Prompt: George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy is a very personal story in that he and his family experienced Japanese internment firsthand. Yet the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II is an unfortunate part of our national history. For this year’s graphic essay, retell a story from history, perhaps one that is also personal to you and your family.
1. Entries should contain panels (in comic book style), which may further be arranged into tiers (rows of panels like a page from a graphic novel), and may contain both “dialogue or thought bubbles” and captions (commentary by a narrator or other non-dialogue text). Use up to sixteen pages no larger than 8 1/2 x 11 inches.
2. Use original art in your entry, either hand drawn or computer generated.
3. Use writing that complements the art and expresses the idea you are trying to convey.
4. Students may collaborate (e.g., if one student is a writer and one student is an illustrator); however, any monetary prizes will be split among the collaborators.
Each entry must be accompanied by a cover sheet indicating student’s name (or any other student collaborators), home address, student email address, grade, and school. You may only submit one entry.
Don’t know what a graphic essay is? Here’s an example by Gene Luen Yang:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/books/review/28sketchbook-yang.html?ref=todayspaper
Click here for excerpts from the 2017 graphic essay contest winners.
Here are some websites that might help you with the graphic portion of your entry:
canva.com/create/comic-strips/
Entries will be judged according to the following criteria:
• Originality of the idea expressed.
• Effectiveness of the writing and illustrations.
• Ability to express an idea pertaining to the topic.
Essays must be postmarked (or hand-delivered) by February 23, 2024, and addressed as follows:
English Festival Graphic Essay Contest
Department of English and World Languages
Youngstown State University
One Tressel Way
Youngstown, Ohio 44555
The English Festival Writing Award for Teachers
The English Festival Writing Award for Teachers was established to reward teachers with a cash prize for excellence in writing about and in response to the YSU English Festival. We further welcome other educational professionals who are involved in the YSU English Festival, including librarians and other school personnel, to submit an entry. We are inviting you to submit writing centered on a Festival book, Festival author, and/or Festival experience. Your entry may be personal, reflective, and/or critical in purpose. You may utilize your experience of the Festival, the reactions and responses of your students, and/or outside critical or popular sources. You might want to keep a log/journal of impressions and observations during the entire English Festival experience to draw on.
Submissions should be at least 4 pages in length.
Deadline for submission is August 15, 2024. Your name, mailing address, and school must appear only on the cover sheet. If you are a prize winner, you will be asked to submit an electronic copy of your essay and your social security number in order to distribute funds per YSU policy. The winner will be announced in the fall, published in the Festival of Writing, and recognized at the next English Festival.
Essays must be postmarked (or hand-delivered) by August 15, 2024, and addressed as follows:
English Festival Writing Award for Teachers
Department of English and World Languages
Youngstown State University
One Tressel Way
Youngstown, Ohio 44555.