If you’re 25 or under, you can help kick off the International Year of Youth by “sharing something about your culture — and your wild imagination — with the rest of the world.” Youthink is running a contest that starts with a supplied story. Contestants are asked to finish the story, adding no more than 300 words and giving the story a title. “Because the theme of the International Year of Youth relates to dialog and understanding across cultures, generations, borders, etc.,” organizers want contestants to include one thing about their culture in the story. “It could be a song, a tradition, a piece of clothing, a verse from a poem.” Deadline is Oct. 15, and the prize is an iPod Nano. You can see stories that already been submitted on the site.

In a much more elaborate contest with an earlier deadline, the Frankfurt Book Fair is promoting Frankfurt SPARKS with a contest that asks entrants to “make use of cross-media storytelling and show how stories are told in the 21st century.” Frankfurt SPARKS is a “digital initiative that addresses the ever changing and converging landscape of the publishing and media industries.”

Contestants are asked to tell/design a story using the media of their choice on any topic and in any genre. “The story can be funny, serious, lurid or subtle, thrilling or dramatic. … The aim of the contest is to demonstrate that, besides the ‘traditional’ way of storytelling in printed or electronic form, stories can also be told across a range of mediums. … choices may include, but are not limited to: pictures, videos, blogs, games, apps, internet forums, events, SMS applications, comics.”

There are two ways to participate at this contest, and given the upcoming Sept. 30 deadline, option 1 might be the way to go for anyone just learning of the contest:

1) submit only a story, a “story spark”. You will need to be able to present it using jovoto’s platform tools.

2) TAKE a story spark and turn it into a cross-media conncept — complete with images, text description and links if necessary to illustrate the concept. For this purpose, The Frankfurt Book Fair co-operates with the “Text-Manufaktur” — a school for authors — whose attendees have stated submitting such Story Sparks for contestants to take up and develop further.