By Christy Franzman
The first HEPL Teen Writing Challenge has concluded and 3 winners were chosen out of 24 entries from teens in grades 6-12.
The Teen Writing Challenge was the idea of a student who shared it with the library’s Teen Advisory Board (TAB). The TAB loved the suggestion and felt it was a great opportunity for teen writers to share their creative writing. The Teen Writing Challenge was born!
The writing contest challenged teens to write an original short mystery/suspense story, using 3,000 words or less, beginning with the line, “Had I known what I would witness that night, I would never have…” Each entry began with that line and took off into their own unique stories!
A panel of 11 judges made up of HEPL staff and teen volunteers on the Teen Advisory Board read through each short story and voted for their top three submissions based on the guidelines of the contest. This was no easy task, as the teens’ entries were all so creative and impressive!
The judges’ votes were tallied and the winners are…
1st Place:
“The Reds” by Gene Gerardot, Fishers High School, grade 12
2nd Place:
“Compliments from the Author” by Julia Bubp, Noblesville High School, grade 9
3rd Place:
“Untitled” by Carol Emerson, Homeschool, grade 10
Each winner was able to choose a gift card from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, or Target. Congratulations to our winners!
I must mention how grateful I am to all the teen authors who entered their work for this contest. How brave to share your writing! Thank you for letting us read your short stories and taking that chance. I hope you all will continue to write and share your talent in future writing contests!
For all of the teen writers out there, keep an eye out for another Teen Writing Challenge in the spring!