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Canadian Space Agency Invites Young Canadians to Participate in Creative Writing Contest

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is inviting people across Canada to write an “out-of-this-world space-themed children’s story” for children aged 3 to 8, and submit it to the agency. Canadians aged 9 years and above are eligible to participate in this contest.

According to CSA, selected stories submitted by the people will be published on the CSA website and could be read by David Saint-Jacques from aboard the International Space Station.

The stories submitted must be original. They can be written by one author or more authors, but should not have been previously published. Each author or team can submit maximum one story. Stories must be submitted in MS-Word document ( (.doc or .docx). The name of the file must include story title and the age category of the participant (e.g. “Title_of_my_story – 9-12.doc”). Participants can also send a maximum of five original images and/or drawings (in .jpg or .jpeg format) along with their stories.

There will be three age categories for the participants:

  • 9 to 12 years old (story word count must be 200- 400 words)
  • 13 to 15 years old (story word count must be 400-700 words)
  • 16 years old and over (story word count must be 700-1,000 words)

Winning stories will be selected by a committee composed of five CSA representatives. Selection criteria will include quality of the writing, coherence, originality and storyline.

Astronaut David Saint-Jacques will select the favorite winning story and read it from space during a live event with the author(s).

People can submit their entry from October 26 until December 31, 2018.

For more information about this contest, visit the website of CSA.