**** Paperight ** *Paperight Media Release, 2 November 2012* **
*New high school anthology to give young writers a voice*Aspiring young writers in South Africa have very few opportunities to have their work published and to test the waters of a potential career in writing. Because of this dearth of visible outlets for young scribes, Paperight, a Shuttleworth Foundation-funded print-on-demand service, has announced the launch of their first Young Writers Anthology, giving South African high school learners the chance to have their original short stories, poetry, essays and illustrations published in an exciting new format.
The anthology, which will be made up solely from submissions by high school learners around South Africa, will be compiled by a collective of literary editors and designers, and will be distributed in print, online and on mobile social networks, potentially reaching an audience of hundreds of thousands of young readers.
"We need more writers in South Africa, in order to chronicle the tumultuous emotions and extraordinary changes that our country is going through," said Nick Mulgrew, Paperight's Head of Communications. "In order to get those writers, however, you need to encourage writing while learners are young, and show them that it is a realistic career pursuit," he continued.
In a first for a local publication, submissions for the Paperight Young Writers Anthology will be accepted and published in English, Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans. This is being done to encourage the growth of literature in more of South Africa's languages, Mulgrew said.
"Most literature published in South Africa is in English and Afrikaans, but those aren't the two most-spoken languages in our country," he said. "Youngsters should be able to write and be read in whichever language they choose, and I think our decision to include submissions in Zulu and Xhosa, the two most widely-spoken home languages in South Africa, is a decent step in that direction."
He also said that the anthology reflects Paperight's commitment to promoting literacy and learning by ensuring that every person in South Africa can have access to books within walking distance of their homes. Paperight's online library allows photocopy shops and other organisations to legally print books on demand, with more than 200 outlets signed up to the service nationwide. When it's published in May 2013, the Young Writers Anthology will be available at any business or organisation signed up with Paperight.
"It's estimated that only about 1% of South Africans are avid readers, according to the South African Book Development Council," Mulgrew said, "and that negatively affects our population's propensity to be active and engaged citizens."
"We urgently need to develop a wide culture of reading and writing in our country," he continued. "I hope this anthology can go a small way toward that goal."
Submissions for the anthology are open until Friday 8 March 2013, and more information, including guidelines for submissions and posters for schools, can be found at *http://blog.paperight.com/* and at *http://blog.paperight.com/2012/11/call-for-submissions-paperight-young-writers-anthology-2013/*
*_Contact_:* *Nick Mulgrew* *Paperight Head of Communications* *021 671 1278* *[email protected]* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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