(Ventura, CA – April 2, 2012) The public is invited to enjoy an evening of poetry on Tuesday, April 10th when the winners of the 11th annual Ventura County Writers Club Poetry Contest will be announced. The winning poets have been invited to perform their works at the April club meeting, and they and their families will be honored at a reception with refreshments following the readings and presentation of plaques.

Winners will be notified in advance so they can attend and read their poems. The names of the winners will be withheld from all but the winners until the night of the presentation. The club would like to thank Maggie Westland for chairing the contest this year and to all of the poets who volunteered to be judges.

This year there will be more winners as the club received six entries in our new, exciting Audio/Visual category. The other categories are: Adult, Youth under 12 and Youth 12 – 18.

“The Audio/Visual category added a new level of creativity to the contest,” stated Maggie Westland. “Poetry is no longer simply words. It sings aloud, delights our eyes and encompasses concrete poems, collage, cartoon, calligraphy, animation, spoken word, slam, hip hop, and lyrics. Audio and video come together as poets perform before cameras with sound tracks. Depending upon the winning A/V entries, we may have them perform live or set up a way to view the winners from YouTube.”

There were 137 total entries this year, including 27 from young people.

“As our Educational Outreach program takes off,” said Kate Sexton, club president, “we hope to work with schools and receive a larger number of entries from students next year. Inspiring a new generation to embrace poetry and other forms of written communication goes to the core of VCWC’s mission-to encourage the craft.”

Winning poems will be published in the club’s newsletter, The Write Stuff and an upcoming edition of the club’s anthology.

CALENDAR INFORMATION
April Meeting of the Ventura County Writers Club
April 10, 2012 7 PM
Pleasant Valley Senior Center,
1605 Burnley St, Camarillo, CA
Topic: Announcement of Poetry contest winners and the reading of winning entries
Open to Members and non-members. No fee.

For more information on the Ventura County Writers Club, visit: http://www.venturacountywriters.com/

About Ventura County Writers Club
Since its formation in 1933 with four members in Ojai, the club has grown to more than 150 members and holds regular monthly general membership meetings. Members may attend, free of charge, a variety of Writers Workshops, groups that meet one or more times a month throughout the county to read and critique manuscripts and discuss many aspects of the business of writing. Monthly meetings are open to all interested writers and are held the second Tuesday of each month (except December) at the Pleasant Valley Senior Center in Camarillo, CA.