South African Short Stories from our Youth (SASSY) is an original initiative by New Voices Publishing Services to inspire the youth of South Africa to write their story. Our aim is to create a safe space for our children to showcase their creative writing talent. Let’s inspire them by trusting their ability to let their voices be heard and use their imagination to freely create original short stories for us all to read and enjoy.
We believe that if we empower our youth and give them a platform, they will use all their inner creativity to open themselves up and trust their abilities to write their story.
New Voices Publishing has structured this initiative to be presented as a Short Story Competition within South African schools – and one day, all African Schools. It will harness the skills of the teachers and peers as supportive editors who will select the best of the best in their school. New Voices Publishing will compile these chosen short stories into a beautiful compilation which will be proudly owned by the school, and the income from the sales of these books will go back into that school’s literacy projects. There is also a hope that lower income schools will be ‘adopted’ by more affluent schools and included in the contest. Once SASSY has enough schools taking part, we will create a Schools Book Festival (SASSY Fest) where all the schools come together to share, swop, read, and buy!
Let’s take it one step further! If you are an art student, why don’t you create the cover for this Short Story Compilation? Send me an email if you have a design to share!
Barbara Mueller of New Voices Publishing has guided authors to self-publish since 2005 and is still in love with her chosen career. She came up with this idea to empower the youth of our country to have a voice and give them the opportunity to write their own story.
Copyright 2021 © by Barbara Mueller