By Christy Franzman
The second HEPL Teen Writing Challenge has concluded and 3 winners were chosen out of 46 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 poem to celebrate National Poetry Month in April.
A panel of 18 judges made up of HEPL staff and teen volunteers on the Teen Advisory Board read through each poem 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 = “Who is Langston Hughes to Me?” by Edyn Curry, HSE High School, grade 11
2nd Place = “Embracing the Fall” by Sanjana Malineni, HSE High School, grade 9
3rd Place = “Not a Phase” by Clarita Flores, Noblesville East Middle School, grade 6
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 poems and taking that chance. I hope you all will continue to write and share your talent in future writing contests!