Three IMPAC-CSU System Poets Among Select Group To Read @ Sunken Garden

Hill-Stead's Sunken Garden Poetry & Music Festival
Night of Fresh Voices, August 20 Summer Greetings from Hill-Stead Museum:

On behalf of everyone at Hill-Stead, I would like to thank you for your support of the Sunken Garden Poetry and Music Festival's High School Student Invitational. Without your collaboration and active encouragement of student poets this event would not have been possible. - Click to Read More.

Britta Bell of Litchfield and Ben Cooper of Winsted [from left to right] join fellow young writers Suthinee Thaeppunkulngam of Thailand, Genevieve Keizha Leon of Malaysia, Marie Smilauerova of the Czech Republic and Patreeya Prasertvit of Thailand at black tie dinner for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Bell will attend College of Santa Fe and Cooper will attend Boston University this fall. Bell and Cooper were state champions in poetry and prose, respectively, for the IMPAC-Connecticut State University System Young Writers competition this year. They both won $1,000 prizes as county champions and spent a week in Dublin earlier this month. The IMPAC Dublin Award of 100,000 Euros was won by novelist Rawi Hage of Canada for De Niro's Game.








Positive Downside www.myspace.com/thepositivedownside
at The Litchfield Inn, 6-1-08


PODCAST: Salman Rushdie Interview on WTIC with Diane Smith and Ray Dunaway. NEW

Musical Line-up from IMPAC Dinner
Information on the 2008 IMPAC Dinner

14 County Champions for 2008

CLICK TO READ THEM ALL.

Reviving A Tradition,
IMPAC-CSU Young Writers
are being considered
for readings at Sunken Garden

2 CT YOUNG WRITERS
OFF TO DUBLIN

State Champion Prose & Poetry Entries

IMPAC-CSU System Young Writers Program



TEENS WIN PROSE, POETRY AWARDS

June 1, 2008



LITCHFIELD, Conn. -- Two students were awarded the top statewide prizes in prose and poetry Sunday in the 11th annual IMPAC-Connecticut State University System Young Writers competition.



Ben Cooper (above), 18, of Barkhamsted and a senior at Northwest Regional District 7, won for his story, "The Underdog." Britta Bell (below), 17, of Litchfield and a senior at Litchfield High School, won for her poem, "Nine Weeks."



At the annual awards dinner Sunday at the Litchfield Inn, both students were awarded week-long trips to Dublin, Ireland, for festivities connected with the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. They were among 16 county champions who were awarded $1,000 prizes at regional ceremonies in April.



The awards dinner featured keynote speakers Lionel Bascom (pictured above), professor of writing at Western Connecticut State University, and Maya Polan of New Haven (pictured below), the 2007 state poetry champion and a sophomore at the University of Redlands in California.



More than 160 guests attended the event. Reception entertainment was by the regga-ska band Positive Downside of West Hartford. [http://www.myspace.com/thepositivedownside] The Jen Allen Big Band, featuring vocalist Laura McCabe, provided dinner music. [http://www.ctyoungwriters.org/musical.htm] Author Rand Cooper served as master of ceremonies (pictured below).



The program has given more than $166,000 to teenagers since 1998.

Young Writers In Dublin
For The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
And Dublin Writers Festival

MALAYSIA
Genevieve Keiza Leon

USA
Britta Bell
Ben Cooper

THAILAND
Patreeya Prasertvit
Suthine Thaeppunkulngam

CZECH REPUBLIC
Marie Smilauerova





Novelist Per Petterson of Norway, winner of the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, is flanked by young writers from Thailand, the United States, Czech Republic and Malaysia. From left to right are: Waranya Nawaluch of Thailand; Melanie Lieberman of Rockville, Ct., USA; Petterson; Jana Frejova of the Czech Republic; Lianne Letitia Ritchie of Malaysia; and Maya Polan of New Haven, Ct., USA.


Young writers at formal ceremony for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, are, from left to right: Lianne Letitia Ritchie, Waranya Nawaluch, Maya Polan, Jana Frejova and Melanie Lieberman. ---

STORY IN WATERBURY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN JUNE 2, 2008:



YOUNG WRITERS REWARDED WITH IRELAND TRIP



BY JOHN MCKENNA

REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

June 2, 2008



LITCHFIELD / Britta Bell's writing skill has earned her a second trip to Ireland as the winner of the IMPAC-CSU Young Writers' poetry competition for state high school students.

Bell, a senior at Litchfield High School, was honored Sunday at the 11th annual contest's awards dinner at the Litchfield Inn. So was Ben Cooper, a senior at Northwestern Regional High School and winner of the contest's prose competition. Bell and Cooper, who is also headed to Ireland, represented Litchfield County as finalists.

Poetry and prose finalists from the state's seven other counties attended the dinner as well. A panel of writers and literary experts chose the county winners. After a thorough review of the work of all finalists, Bell and Cooper, who lives in Barkhamsted, were chosen.

The two winners, each accompanied by one parent, get an all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland June 7 to 14 to experience the presentation of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The award, worth 100,000 Euros, is the world’s largest literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English.


IMPAC is a management productivity consulting firm run by James B. Irwin Sr. (pictured above) of Litchfield, owner of the Litchfield Inn. IMPAC and the Connecticut State University System have been sponsors of the Young Writers' program since 2000. More than $166,000 in cash prizes has been awarded to high school students since the program's inception in 1998. Bell, who went to Ireland as the state poetry winner two years ago, was honored for her poem, "Nine Weeks," a fictional piece about a high school student who has an abortion.


Chancellor David Carter of the
Connecticut State University System.

Cooper's winning prose, "The Underdog," is the story of a mild-mannered high school student who decides to take on bullies in his school.

"I see it as an opportunity to meet some great writers and open doors for myself," Cooper, who will attend Boston University, said.