The Creative Work Fund just announced a March 4, 2011 deadline for letters of inquiry for collaborations between literary artists or traditional artists and nonprofit organizations. Grants will range from $10,000-$40,000.

To be eligible to apply, collaborating artists must reside and organizations must be based in the following 14 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus. For more information, check out their website.

Our friends at the San Francisco Public Library have a program for teens this summer called Teen Summer Read 2010. This is how it works: Register at your local library to receive a game board. Complete 6 tasks on the game board (Activities include reading, visiting environmental places in San Francisco, getting friends to sign up, or going to library events). Once you complete the game board, you can get a flash drive and be entered in a raffle to win a grand prize. The prizes are pretty sweet: a MacBook, iPod Nano, Nintendo Wii or MP3 players! The prizes will be awarded on August 6, so get started reading now!

Details here or go to your local library branch to learn more.

We had a packed house at the Claim the Block reading at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on March 11, featuring students from Mission High School, the Main Library, and Hilltop High School. WritersCorps teaching artists Carrie Leilam Love and Cindy Je also read. Here’s a few photos of the evening taken by Jessica Watson. (Thanks, Jessica!) Also, many thanks to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for hosting and sharing their beautiful space with us.

By the way, did you know teens can get free memberships at the Contemporary Jewish Museum? The museum also has a teen intern program called Teen Art Connect (TAC). They are now accepting applications for internships, which are due on April 9. Find out more at their website.

A city-wide poetry contest is under way! Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and their Poet-in-Residence Jack Hirschman, together with the San Francisco Public Library are hosting a contest and reading series called Poets 11. They’ll be collecting poems from every neighborhood in each of San Francisco’s 11 districts.

Local poets are encouraged to submit up to three poems. Writings which reflect San Francisco’s diversity of language and culture and those written in languages other than English are highly encouraged. Selected poets will be presented with a $50 honorarium and their poems will be published in an anthology.

Submissions are due March 1, 2010. To find out how to submit, go here.

Our friends at Intersection for the Arts are offering a free writing workshop this Thursday, January 28. The workshop is led by playwright Chinaka Hodge and is inspired by the upcoming world premiere of her new play, “Mirrors in Every Corner.” It’s open to all ages and runs from 6 to 8 pm. More details here.