The Portuguese Language Communication Association in Macao begins today soliciting entries for a new contest among schoolchildren to write fiction in Portuguese and then illustrate it, inviting pupils at nine schools in the lusophone world to compete.

The contest is open to school pupils aged between 10 and 12 in Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Macao, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste, the association announced in writing.

The association says tales of the sea are the theme of the contest.

The sponsors, Portuguese cartoonist António Antunes and the Angolan author that goes by the pen name Ondjaki, together with a six-strong jury, will pick the best story and the best of the illustrations, the association says.

All the entries will be translated into Chinese and published as a collection, the Portuguese Language Communication Association says.