TV Appearance Rescheduled To Dec. 7
Rockville High School English teacher Victoria Nordlund [left] and senior Melanie Lieberman [center] with NBC 30's Tom Monahan after taping of Connecticut Newsmaker's segment on Nov. 28. The show will air on Sun., Dec. 7. It was originally scheduled for Nov. 30.
NEWS ALERT: Young Writer, Teacher On Channel 30's Ct Newsmakers
[plz note: 2009 entry forms for the IMPAC-CSU System Young Writers competition
have been mailed to all public, private and parochial secondary schools in CT;
the entry forms and a letter of encouragement from CSU System Chancellor Dr. David Carter
have been posted at the Young Writers and CSU System Websites -- see links below.]
--
2007 State Prose Champion Melanie Lieberman,*
now a senior at Rockville High School,
and
Victoria Nordlund,** English teacher and head of the department at Rockville High
on
NBC 30'S Connecticut Newsmakers With Tom Monahan,
Sunday, NOV. 30 @ 6:30 a.m.;
repeated @ about 9 p.m. on CT-N.
--
THIS FOLLOWS THEIR APPEARANCE NOV. 13 ON WTIC'S MORNING SHOW WITH RAY DUNAWAY AND DIANE SMITH.
Twelfth Annual
IMPAC-Connecticut State University System Competition
Sixteen $1,000 Prizes For Prose & Poetry
State Champions In Prose & Poetry
Awarded Trips To Ireland
For 13th Annual International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award & Dublin Writers Festival
NOTE: The program has given more than $166,000 to teen writers since 1998.
* Melanie Lieberman will be a keynote speaker and co-host a workshop for the June 2009 annual dinner.
** Victoria Nordlund is the department head of English at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT where she has been teaching English for eighteen years. She received her BS in Education from the University of Connecticutin 1990, and in 1999 received her MALS from Wesleyan University.
She currently advises the Rockville High School Poetry Club and Book Club. She has organized many poetry coffeehouses and poetry slams. In addition,Victoria has developed the creative writing program at RHS. Many of her students have won prestigious national and state poetry and prose competitions. They have inspired her to continue her own craft.
This year, she was named a finalist in the 2008 NEATE New England Poet of the Year contest. --
Melanie Taryn Lieberman is a senior at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT, where she has lived her entire life and drawn inspiration. In addition to writing, she takes dance, piano, is in the poetry club, book club, cultural enrichment club, and is the editor of both the RHS Literary Arts magazine as well as the RHS Rampage newspaper. She is currently applying to Wesleyan University, Emerson College, Suffolk University, Hampshire College, and the University of Connecticut. Which ever school she attends, she knows without a doubt that she wants to major in creative writing and pursue a future in the exciting world of literature, publishing, and the written word. In addition to winning IMPAC for prose in 2007, Melanie has also won first place in the 2008 National Drexel Playwriting Competition, as well as been published in the CT Review, the CT Student Writer, the RHS Literary Magazine, and co-written the Vernon Bicentennial Play. She hopes that her writing can have the same poignant effect on someone that the writers she loves have had on her.
Melanie's story, "Mashed Potato Boy & My Fifth Grade Romance," was published inthe Spring 2008 edition of Connecticut Review, the literary journal of theConnecticut State University System.
IMPAC is an international productivity enhancement firm run by James B. Irwin Sr. of Litchfield, owner of the Litchfield Inn. IMPAC and the Connecticut State University System are the primary sponsors of the Young Writers' program, which is also supported by many banks, real estate firms, law firms and other businesses throughout Connecticut.
More than $166,000 in cash prizes has been awarded to high school students since the program's inception in 1998.
Some of Vicky Nordlund's Students:
COUNTY [$1,000] WINNERS
2004
Tolland - Poetry Kelly Berryman, Rockville High School
2005
Tolland - Prose Molly LaFlesh, Rockville High School
2006
Tolland - Poetry Molly LaFlesh, Rockville High School
Tolland - Prose Fallon VanOudenhove, Rockville High School
2007
Tolland - Poetry Hannah Ojard, Rockville High School
Tolland - Prose Melanie Lieberman, Rockville High School*** State Champion
2008
Tolland - Poetry Rachel Brady, Rockville High School
Tolland - Prose Kathryn Johndrow, Rockville High School
--
NORWICH BULLETIN EDITORIAL, NOVEMBER 08
Our View:
Young writers should be encouraged
Norwich Bulletin
[http://www.norwichbulletin.com/]
Posted Nov 15, 2008 @ 12:00 AM
In this age of rapidly advancing technology, text messaging has become the norm in written communication. And with that, words have been reduced to simplified initialization. Sharing a laugh with someone is nothing more than a notation, LOL.
Lost is the beauty of conveying thoughts and feelings by stringing together words whose meanings cannot be translated into just mere symbols and letters. Lost is the reward of writing.
That’s why we are pleased to support the Connecticut Young Writers program, an annual literary awards competition for students ages 13 to 18. Sponsored by the Connecticut State University System and IMPAC (Improved Management Profitability and Control), a management productivity consulting firm, the program is in its 12th year of encouraging and rewarding excellence in writing, and inspiring young people to develop their writing talents.
Time with peers More than $166,000 in prizes has been awarded to teen writers since 1998. But more importantly, the recognition has encouraged these young writers to pursue their talent.
Two students from each of Connecticut’s eight counties will be awarded $1,000 prizes for their prose or poetry writing at regional award ceremonies hosted by local state universities. From this select group of 16 teens, the two best works will earn their authors a trip to Dublin, Ireland, where they will join winners from around the world at the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award program, the largest international monetary prize program for a single work of fiction.
It is an opportunity for young people dedicated to writing to experience the rewards available for their work.
Students, in private or public schools, are eligible but must be nominated by teachers in order to submit entries. We would urge all of Eastern Connecticut’s teachers to encourage their students to consider this opportunity. All entries must be postmarked by Feb. 2, 2009.
On the Web: Entry forms and additional information on the program can be obtained online at www.ctstateu.edu/youngwriters or www.ctyoungwriters.org
Chancellor Carter To Teachers, Counselors, Administrators: Please Encourage Students To Enter Young Writers Competition
New Entry Form For 2009
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
MALAYSIAGenevieve 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.