This contest celebrates the popularity of audio books and the joy of reading to a toddler or sharing a favored book passage with a friend.
Whether you enter the contest or merely participate by being in the audience, come experience the skills and variety of approaches applied to speaking the written word.
Judging will be based on how well characters’ lines are delivered, how effectively descriptions are conveyed, and on how well audience attention is captured. Pacing of the story will also be taken into consideration.
Participation is limited to 6 people, on a first-come-first-entered basis. Pre-registration will be allowed by sending an email to contests@demicon.org starting in late March. Due to demand, if you pre-register and are not in the room by 5 minutes after the start of the contest, your place may not be held. Registration is also allowed at the contest.
Traditionally, the contest is held on Friday at 5:00 p.m. The reading selections will take between 5-6 minutes each to read. If there are only three, or fewer, participants, contestants may read a second selection.
This year’s selections were made on the theme of heroes in folk tales. At the request of a person who helped develop this contest, there is also a selection from The Scarlet Pimpernel, identified as the first superhero in literature.
Here are links to this year’s selections:
- The Good Thunder, from Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James
- The Enchanted Peafowl, from Yugoslav Folk and Fairy Tales retold by Parker Fillmore
- Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
- The Wondrous Story of Ivan Golik and the Serpents, from Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales
- The Fairy Aurora, from Romanian Fairy Tales compiled by Mite Krimnitz
- The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain from East of the Sun and West of the Moon – Old Tales from the North (Norway) by Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Engebretsen Moe
- How Havana Got Its Market from Myths & Legends of Our New Possessions & Protectorate by Charles M. Skinner
- The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy