Office of the Vice President Announces Sixth “Literary Bottles” Contest to Encourage Reading Among Youth and Environmental Awareness

Santo Domingo, February 19, 2019 – The Office of the Vice President of the Republic and the Children and Youth Library of the Dominican Republic (BIJRD), with the sponsorship of Bepensa Dominicana and Coca Cola, announce the sixth annual National Literary Bottles Contest 2019. The goal of this initiative is to awaken the love for creative writing, reading and art in students through the creation of artistic projects made with recycled materials.

The announcement was made in the Library’s La Trinitaria Auditorium by Library Director Dulce Elvira de los Santos, who explained that this year’s theme is “Read Me! Nothing Makes us Better than Reading.”

The event is dedicated to Dominican poet and writer Virgilio Díaz Grullón, one of the country’s most important literary figures in the short story category. This year’s International Book Fair in Santo Domingo will be dedicated to the writer.
Director de los Santos also explained that the deadline for the participating works will be March 21 and 22. All entry pieces should be taken to the Library’s Mi Espacio Hall. The award ceremony will be held in one of Santo Domingo’s most important shopping centers – Galeria 360 – on April 11, 2019.
The National Director of Fine Arts, Haffe Serulle, encouraged all students to care for the environment and to respect nature in order to improve our planet’s quality of life and guarantee a better world for future generations.
Since its very beginning – sponsored by the Office of Vice President Dr. Margarita Cedeño – some 93,000 students and 415 student activities have participated in the contests. During all these events, students learned the importance of recycling, while at the same time becoming involved in the world of literature.
Contest Guidelines and Awards

Participating students must be registered in public and private high schools that are involved in special graduation projects. Registration must be done through the Library’s website: http://bijrd.gob.do/.

Participants must pick up at the Library a special “Literary Bottle”, read one of the texts written by contest participants, socialize it, and then create an artistic creation based on the text read.

This particular activity will be worth five percent. A specialized jury will evaluate the works presented, taking into account the creativity, originality and relationship of the work to the literary piece in which it was inspired.

The contest will issue three special awards. The first prize winner will receive the equivalent of US$2,000; the second prize winner, US$1,500 and the third prize winner US$1,000.

Three special mentions will receive US$500 each.

Key Requirement

It is important to highlight that the participant be registered in the Library’s social media outlets: Facebook: bibliotecainfantilyjuvenilRD and @Tubiblioteca, in Instagram.

For more information, please call 809-685-4276.