(PRWEB) March 02, 2016 -- Two popular apps that support young artists and writers are calling on teens to create works, twisting the fate of heroes and villains. "Twist Fate," an art and writing challenge for 13 to 17 year olds, is being hosted by DeviantArt, the world's largest community for visual art, and by Wattpad, the world's largest community of readers and writers.
“Wattpad and DeviantArt are home to some of the most active and inspiring creative youth communities on the net. They offer a rich and motivating context for young people to connect, learn, and get feedback from others who share their interests and passions,” said Mimi Ito, co-founder of the Connected Learning Alliance and UC Irvine cultural anthropologist who specializes in learning. “This challenge is an opportunity for more educators and youth to tap into this creative energy and experience how social online platforms can fuel learning and engagement in the arts.”
Young people are invited to submit entries on the website of either DeviantArt or Wattpad from March 6 through April 6. The best stories, comic panels, illustrations or other creations will be chosen as finalists that will be reviewed by a panel of editors who will decide which ones to publish in a book. And, the book will be made available to the public in libraries across the country.
The editors are: writers Sara Ryan (author of “Bad Houses,” “The Rules for Hearts” and “Empress of the World”) and Lauren Kate (author of “Fallen,” Torment,” “Passion,” “Rapture,” “Fallen in Love” and “The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove”), Walt Disney Animation Studios story artist Brian Kesinger and Antero Garcia, assistant professor of English at Colorado State University.
Twist Fate is being sponsored by the Connected Learning Alliance (CLA), National Writing Project (NWP) and Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). They are encouraging teachers, librarians and after-school program coordinators to inform students about the challenge in an effort to connect their interests in art and writing to learning.
“The creative Wattpad community is used to remixing and reimagining existing story worlds,” said Wattpad’s co-founder and CEO Allen Lau. "With the Twist Fate Challenge, teens have an incredible opportunity to use text and multimedia to create a work of fiction on Wattpad that could appear on school library shelves across North America."
Added Christina Cantrill, of NWP: “Since we know that writing happens in many ways with words and images across mediums and communities, this project allows youth to channel their interests and understanding into new skills which, in turn, will support them navigating a rapidly changing world of participatory engagement and communications.”
The mission is to nurture the artist in everyone, said Angelo Sotira, DeviantArt’s co-founder and CEO. “Young people experiment with all kinds of expression so, we are really excited to participate with the partners on this project — all of which share our same commitment and mission. The Twist Fate project, linked with serious educators, is a new opportunity for our community to teach and give voice to teens in a peer setting. We have always done this organically and on a huge scale but this is the first time we have partnered directly with library and school programs.”
The challenge also is part of YALSA’s Teen Tech Week campaign, in which libraries nationwide showcase their digital resources and services that are available to help teens succeed in school and prepare for college and 21st century careers.
“The Twist Fate challenge provides libraries and classrooms across the globe an opportunity to link connected learning, creativity and technology and gives students a chance to improve their skills and get to know supportive, social communities that can help connect them as mentors, fellow artists, and friends,” YALSA President Candice Mack said.
For more information, visit DeviantArt.com/TwistFate or Wattpad.com/TwistFateChallenge.
Media Contact
Mimi Ko Cruz
mcruz(at)hri(dot)uci(dot)edu
949-824-4587
Related Webinars
Connecting the Creative Sparks of Young Makers to Supportive Communities of Practice
Storytelling and Making Redefined: Get to Know the Wattpad Community
Meet the “Deviants”: Networked Artists and Makers of DeviantArt
About DeviantArt
Founded in 2000, DeviantArt is an online social network for artists and art enthusiasts, and a platform for emerging and established artists to exhibit, promote, and share their works with an enthusiastic, art-centric community. It has more than 38 million registered members and attracts more than 65 million unique visitors per month. Members — knowns as deviants — daily upload more than 160,000 original artworks, everything from painting and sculpture to digital art, pixel art, films, and anime. Learn more at deviantart.com.
About Wattpad
Founded in 2006, Wattpad is a free app that lets people discover and share stories about the things they love. More than 40 million people around the world turn to Wattpad to find entertainment that matches their interests and fits their schedules. Wattpad stories are serialized and the entire community participates in the storytelling process through comments, messages, and multimedia. The app offers stories in over 50 languages and works on mobile and web. The company is based in Toronto, Canada. Learn more at wattpad.com.
About Connected Learning Alliance
The Connected Learning Alliance supports the expansion and influence of a network of educators, experts and youth-serving organizations, mobilizing new technology in the service of equity, access and opportunity for all young people. The Alliance is coordinated at the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at UC Irvine. Learn more at clalliance.org.
About National Writing Project
The National Writing Project is a network of sites anchored at colleges and universities and serving teachers across disciplines and at all levels, early childhood through university. NWP provides professional development, develops resources, generates research, and acts on knowledge to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities. Learn more at nwp.org.
About Young Adult Library Services Association
The Young Adult Library Services Association is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates with a mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens. YALSA brings together key stakeholders from the areas of libraries, education, research, out of school time, youth development and more to develop and deliver resources to libraries that expand their capacity to support teen learning and enrichment and to foster healthy communities. Learn more at ala.org/yalsa.
Mimi Ko Cruz, DML Research Hub, UCHRI, Connected Learning Alliance, Connected Camps, http://dmlhub.net/, +1 949-824-4587, [email protected]
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