2020 RYS WRITING CONTEST

We're excited to announce the 2020 Annual Rate Your Story Awesome Openers Writing Contest will be open for submissions starting August 1st! *Please note: submissions received before August 1st will not be accepted. To read all of the contest details please visit our contest page by clicking HERE.

The contest is open to all! First prizes winners in each of our three categories will win a skip-the-slush-pile submission pass for Kelly Delaney, editor at Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers. To learn more about Kelly and her wishlist, read below:

Kelly Delaney is an Editor at Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, where she acquires and edits books for young readers of all ages. She has a master’s degree in Publishing: Digital and Print Media from NYU and has been at Random House Children's Books for nearly ten years. Books she has edited include Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi, Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung, Lucy and the Rocket Dog by Will Buckingham, and Grandma's Purse by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, and she has been fortunate enough to work with many of her favorite authors, from R.J. Palacio and Markus Zusak to Anita Lobel and Norton Juster.

Across age groups and genres she tends to gravitate towards warmer, more upbeat stories and is always happy to see humor and a little bit of magic and mischief. She has a soft spot for books about science (fiction and nonfiction), especially about outer space and the ocean. She's actively looking for stories from diverse perspectives and tends to shy away from high fantasy and rhyming picture books. You can follow her on Twitter at @kellyunderwater.

Best of luck to all!