WINNERS!!!!

I received a letter today that five of my students have been invited to publish their poetry from the "Creative Communications" Poetry Contest.  I wrote about this contest in earlier blogs.  It was one I researched quite a bit and debated whether or not to enter.  The organizations invites to students to publish and offers for them to purchase the anthology they are published in.  It's not a scam.  Students can publish without purchasing a book, however I was concerned about setting students up for this kind of thing when the books may cause a financial burden on students.  Ultimately I decided to do because of my determination to try out every contest.  You never how it will pan out if you don't try, right?  Frankly, we lost so many in a row, I didn't really expect anyone to win this.  Now we have five!!  (Just to show you how subjective these things are, one of my favorite poems that was submitted was NOT a winner - there's just no guessing what's going to win and what's not!)
If all five students get permission to publish, I get a free book, which I will either give to one of the students or donate it to the school library - haven't decided which.  Either way, I'm excited for the students.  It's a great boost.  "Creative Communications" proclaims that this is their primary purpose - to encourage students to keep writing.  In that, I believe, this experience will be successful.