What Book Should I Buy An Aspiring Writer?

What You Wish For is now the perfect holiday gift for aspiring writers ages 13+. Readers have a chance to get their own unpublished manuscripts critiqued by renowned literary agents and authors, in an essay contest we just announced at bookwish.org/contest. A 500-word essay about a short story in What You Wish For is all that separates six winners from getting feedback on their own writing from:

  • Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot
  • Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau
  • Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust
  • Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe
  • Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
  • Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey's Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue

Essays are due Feb. 1, 2012, so there's plenty of time for gift recipients to enter. Essay contest winners will have six months to submit young adult or middle grade manuscripts for critique, so it's okay if they haven't written them, yet. See bookwish.org/contest for full details about the contest.

What You Wish For is a collection of short stories and poems about wishes from 18 all-star writers: Meg Cabot, Jeanne DuPrau, Cornelia Funke, Nikki Giovanni, John Green, Karen Hesse, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Nate Powell, Sofia Quintero, Gary Soto, R.L. Stine, Francisco X. Stork, Cynthia Voigt, Jane Yolen. With a Foreword by Mia Farrow. All contributed their writing for free so that we could donate 100% of our proceeds to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to develop libraries in Darfuri refugee camps.

What You Wish For received a starred review in the American Library Association's Booklist magazine.

Where to buy:

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