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Wanted: Creative Minds
Online Publishing Opportunities for Youth
Brett Walther
October 6, 2001
Old shoeboxes are probably the greatest repositories of poetry in the world.
Forget those dusty, leather-bound anthologies of centuries-old verse that are shoved down English students' throats. The real treasures of poetry are the products of young people, who all too often file their creative writing away in shoeboxes which are then shoved under the bed to be forgotten.
Perhaps this is because these young authors feel that their work isn't good enough to be published. On the other hand, this may be the case because young people have traditionally lacked a means of making their writing public.
Cyberteens offers a solution to this situation.
At http://www.cyberteens.com, Cyberteens provides a space for young people to publish their creative work. If you click on the "Creativity" link listed in the column running down the left side of the web site, you can browse through galleries of poetry, short story writing, non-fiction, and visual art.
These creative works have been contributed by young people from across the globe. Although Canadian and American youth account for most of the submissions, art and literature are posted from teens as far off as Pakistan and India.
Each writer or artist receives full credit for his or her contribution, and listed beside their name is their age and country of origin. In the instances where the author has requested some degree of anonymity, Cyberteens has respected this and only listed the author's first name.
Particularly impressive is the Poetry collection. The themes of the poems featured on Cyberteens range from "Love and Romance" to "Nature", and the styles employed are equally as diverse.
It's almost tragic to think that without the Internet, many of these works would have remained private, relegated to a shoebox and eventually forgotten.
The Non-fiction link brings you to some truly thought-provoking essays on life as an adolescent. Brad Hunt's tongue-in-cheek thesis that peer pressure has inadvertently caused our generation to isolate ourselves and restrict our social interaction to Internet chat rooms in "An Ode to Peer Pressure" is particularly well written. It may not be an essay topic that you would have the chance to explore in high school, but thankfully, Cyberteens provides the medium through which it can reach an audience.
To submit your original creative work to Cyberteens, email it as an attachment to editor@cyberteens.com. For the complete list of submission requirements, it's best to directly consult http://www.cyberteens.com/ab/co/.
It's time to open that shoebox and share your talent with the world.
Brett Walther is the Coordinator of the Oxford County Library Community Access Program.
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