Short Story Contest Winners

“Winners of the second annual Teen Writing Contest were announced at a presentation on September 3rd, kicking off the authors’ presentations sessions at the weekend-long Festival of Books.
The 2016 contest included Short Story and Poetry sections, with cash prizes of $100., $75. or $50. for first, second and third place winners. Story submissions were judged by David Highfill, an Executive Editor at William Morrow, and Daphne Kalotay, prize-winning author of the novels Russian Winter and Sight Reading. Poetry winners were selected by Mark Wunderlich, who also discuss his latest work, The Earth Avails, in a wonderful presentation and reading in our afternoon author’s program.

The winners (click on story or poem names to read):

Short Story
First: Anne Savage, for her story titled Off Duty, about a pair of life guards who share a strange experience. Ann is a Senior at Taconic Hills Central School.
Second: Sebastian Lamond, a Junior at the Berkshire Waldorf High School, who wrote The Cold Boy, and sang and played the ukelele while reading the enchanting song embedded within the story.

Poetry
First: Kyra Zapf, for her poem There Used to be a Window. Kyra is a Senior at John Dewey Academy.
Second: Maya Woolridge, a Senior at The Darrow School, wrote Technically Difficult.
Third: Pearl Elsbach entered her poem “I Made Our Bed From An Olive Tree Still Rooted To The Ground”, otherwise known as The Odysseus Poem. Pearl is in the 11th Grade at Berkshire Waldorf High School, and also won a prize in last year’s story contest.

Congratulations to these fine young writers, and also to all the students who were brave enough to enter the competition. We are looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.”