Report on activities

1.      Yearly competitions on writing

Early each year, the WLS announces its annual competition on writing books for children of various genres, as well as on a variety of subjects (historical novels, travel novels, adventures, school stories, novels about children’s daily life, novels on ecological problems, poetry, drama, etc.)

The purpose of the WLS competitions is to encourage writers, especially young ones, to write books for children of high quality dealing with subjects of interest to nowadays children.

The competition announcement is made known to the public through the press and it  addresses to adult writers. Works must be submitted anonymously in three copies. The submission deadline for the manuscripts is the 1^st of October.

Separate Juries for every genre judge the manuscripts, while the works are read phrase-by-phrase and line-by-line. The jury members, loyal to the power of word, believe that even a single word, which may appear to be insignificant, can sometimes support the whole text, or destroy it. Thus, they really insist on their corrections and remarks.

During the award ceremony, all of the works – either they win a prize or not - are thoroughly analyzed. The advantages of the works are shown whereas remarks are made about things that should be avoided. Somebody who had once failed said: “I am not interested in the prize. I just want to get back the manuscript and work on the corrections”.

Juries announcing the winners

Award ceremony 1964

Award ceremony 1982 The winners	Award ceremony 1985 The winners

Each winner receives a diploma and a small sum of money, ranging from 500 to 800 Euros. Publishing houses, organizations or individuals are the ones who sponsor the prizes.

Apart from the prizes for writing, there is also one for well-prepared and successful school magazines. This prize is the only one awarded to children.

The Jury decision is announced during the award ceremony that takes place every year on 11^th  December, the International Day of Children’s Rights.

2.      Publications

The WLS publishes a yearly bulletin referring to its activities in detail. Below are the covers of the bulletins published in the last decade.

      In 1988, the WLS also started publishing anthologies with short stories of high quality written by its members. The royalties are offered to support the WLS. These anthologies are the following:

O kipos me tis istories (A Garden full of stories) Illustration: Teti Solou Type: Short Stories for young children Publisher: Astir, Athens 1988, pages: 95

Sto galaxia tis enomenis Evropis (In the galaxy of the United Europe) Illustration: Spiros Gousis Type: Narratives for the European Union Publisher: Agyra, Athens 1994, pages: 217

Stin palia mou gitonia (In my old neighborhood) Illustration: Thanassis Tzitsikas Type: Narratives for the places we lived as children Publisher: Kastaniotis, Athens 1999, pages. 221

O prasinos koumparas (The green piggy bank) Illustration: Natalia Kapatsoulia Type: Stories for the environment Publisher: Psichoyos, Athens 2002, pages: 106

Na ta poume? Na ta peite? (Singing Christmas carols) Illustration: Artemis Nikolaidou Type: Christmas Stories Publisher: Psichoyos, Athens 1999, pages: 157

San to skylo me ti gata (Like the dog and the cat) Illustration: Type: Animal stories Publisher: Kedros, Athens 1998, pages: 149

Patrides tis psychis (Homelands of the soul) Cover: Maria Konstantakaki Type: Refugee stories Publisher: Patakis, Athens 1998, pages: 149

Ta giortina mas (Our festivities) Illustration: Filomila Vakali-Syrogiannopoulou Type: Christmas stories Publisher: Astir, Athens 1993, pages: 108

Kalimera, Physi! (Goodmorning, Nature!) Illustration: Type: Stories about the physical environment Publisher: Smyrniotakis, Athens .... pages: 93

Since 2000, the WLS publishes a calendar including short narratives by its members under various titles:

2000: Thymame (I remember)
2001: Mikra hamogela (Small smiles)
2002: Scholikes anamnyseis (School memories)
2003: Ena forema, mia istoria (A dress, a story)
2004: Ena tragoudi, mia istoria (A song, a story)

Recently, the WLS published a collection of essays on children’s literature under the title:

Periplaniseis stin paidiki logotechnia (Journey into the children’s literature) Editor: Pantelis Zouras Type: Theoretical texts for children’s literature Publisher: Akritas, Athens 2003, pages. 173

The WLS has also published short biographies of three of its founding members and two friends - all distinguished writers. These are:

-         Tatiana Stavrou (editor: Angeliki Varella)
-         Ioanna Boukoubala-Anagnostou (editor: Angeliki Varella)
-         Giorgis Krokos (by Professor Iraklis Kallergis)
-         I.D. Ioannides (editor: Angeliki Varella)
-         Rena Kartheou (by Antonis Benekos)

3. Visits to schools, meeting, celebrations

The WLS often organizes visits to schools, so that its member-writers can meet their young readers and talk about books and reading. The celebration of the International Children’s Book Day, on April 2, is an exemplary opportunity for meet-the-author events, which nevertheless may happen on many other occasions throughout the year.

Quite often, the WLS organizes or participates in meetings, seminars and conferences on children’s literature that take place in various places all over the country. It also participates in almost every celebration or festivity connected with children’s books.

Children singing during WLS festivity: "The forest in children's literature" - 16/12/1996

4.        Exhibitions

The WLS  often organizes or participates in exhibitions of children’s books. For example, to mark its 30th anniversary, it organized an exhibition from November 28 to December 8, 1988, in cooperation with the Municipality of Athens. The exhibition included more than 150 children's books published, after winning an award in one of WLS's 30 annual contests for unpublished manuscripts, entered anonymously. At the opening of the exhibition a two-day meeting of lectures on children's books was held.

President Tatiana Stavrou welcomes children's literature personalities to the exhibition