How Writers Can Make the Most of National Reading Month

March is National Reading Month, when we celebrate the joy of reading. Schools all over the country are planning literacy-related activities to highlight reading in fun and unusual ways. Writers can celebrate the observance by reading to schoolchildren. Not only is this a meaningful avenue for volunteering, it provides some benefit to the writer. Here’s how you can make the most of it.

  • You’ll get to practice reading out loud: If you haven’t done a public reading in a while, reading a storybook to children will be a great warm up to reading your work before an audience.
  • You’ll get to practice public speaking: You can tell the kids about your love of reading and writing and your successes and challenges of getting published.
  • You’ll get new material for social networking posts and tweets: Reading to kids is an adventure. The conversations you’ll have with them during your reading could be interesting to your fans and followers.
  • You’ll attract new readers: The kids will likely go home and tell their parents that a “real author” came to their school that day. The adults might decide to Google you, find your web site or blog and start following you.

So let’s celebration National Reading Month. Let’s get reading and see where it takes us.

 

Money prize opportunity for Boston writers

Dorothy O’Connor Contest

The second annual Dorothy O’Connor Writing Contest is for Boston-area women who have published an essay or article of interest for her community and beyond in the past year (in a newspaper or journal; in print or online). Only WNBA-Boston members can nominate, but nominees do not need to be members. The winner will receive a cash prize of $500.

All submission are due on March 14th, 2015 at news.wnbaboston@gmail.com. Please submit the following: Author’s name, date and place of publication, and the essay/article (acceptable formats: .jpeg, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .pages).

Should you have any questions or have problems acquiring the essay/article do not hesitate to contact us at news.wnbaboston@gmail.com