Bookstore Poetry Contest Gives Voice to At-Risk Youth

Community involvement with a special emphasis on the arts has been at the heart of Troubadour Books since its opening in Boulder, Colorado, in August 2005. It's only natural, then, that this March, in partnership with a local youth outreach organization, Troubadour will host the Second Annual Sage Community Partnership/Troubadour Bookstore Boulder County Youth Poetry Competition. Owner Deb Evans said the impetus for the event was her desire to "encourage some of the at-risk youth in the community to bring their writing to a public forum."

Evans, who regularly sponsors events offsite, created the first poetry contest in 2008 to mark National Poetry Month. "Last year, we had what we thought was a pretty good response -- about 160 entries from 58 contestants. It was great," she said. "This year we're hoping to get more. I try to promote the store by sponsoring performances and auctions for a few small local dance schools, youth orchestras, and so on."

When Evans learned about Sage Community Partnership, a nonprofit that provides services for young people who have aged out of foster care, she wanted to bring attention to their cause and to the kids' writing. "They are often quite creative kids who have led difficult, disrupted lives. So, we launched the Youth Poetry Contest as a way to be involved in the community," she explained.

The contest is for Boulder residents and awards are given in two age categories, one for 11- to 14-years-olds, and another for 15- to 19-years-olds. Cash prizes for the winning entries range from $50 to $100 and will be presented on Saturday, March 14, at the Longmont Public Library. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee Jared Smith will judge the contest and participate in the catered awards presentations.

The current Troubadour Books, which has 800 square feet of selling space and 4,000 titles, is Evans' second attempt at bookselling. "About 10 years ago I opened a similar shop in downtown Boulder that was focused entirely on writing and performing arts," she said. "Those were areas that I was interested in and they were not well-represented at either the independent or chain stores, so I thought there might be a niche." It turned out "the timing was wrong," and the store closed. Evans then regrouped and went back to work as a business manager for a social services consulting company. About seven years ago, she decided to open another store while keeping her day job.

The Troubadour Books name reflects the combination of writing, music, and performance that was the focus of the first store. "As an undergrad I had studied Italian literature and became interested in the role that the troubadours of Italy and France played in the evolution of literary and political culture," said Evans. "I thought that would be a good theme for what I wanted the bookstore to be."

The current Troubadour, which is located in a "less expensive and less trafficked area," still maintains a special focus on writing and performing arts, but also includes general interest nonfiction and literary fiction, classics, and books for children. Evans said, "As long as I can support it I'm happy to keep building a selective inventory, filling special orders, and serving our slowly growing regular clientele." --Karen Schechner