Winners of the Friends of the Chappaqua Library 29th Annual Young Writers Contest 2009

January 22, 2010
by Cheryl Jacobs Ehrlich

Last year’s 29th Annual Young Writers Contest sponsored by the Friends of the Chappaqua Library generated nearly 300 entries in the high school and middle school categories of Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Winners were selected by a panel of creative arts and writing professionals who read all entries “blind,” that is, without knowledge of the authors’ identities. These judges, who graciously donated many hours of their time to the contest, included a national magazine journalist, a literary agent, an author and journalist specializing in biographies, a documentary filmmaker and a writer/editor at Reuters news service.

It was no easy task to choose the winners, and some of the selections were very close. We congratulate all of the winners and honorable mentions for their achievements in the field of creative writing, expository writing and poetry writing. Thanks to everyone for submitting your work, and we look forward to seeing this year’s contributions.

We are happy to announce the winners, who receive cash prizes, and the honorable mentions.

MIDDLE SCHOOL AWARDS

Middle School Poetry

First place: Sasha Whittaker, Seven Bridges Middle School (7BMS), 8th grade, Ashes and Still Moments.

Second place: Jasmine Canziani, 7BMS, 8th grade, To Erase or Not to Erase.

Third place: Mariel Huehnergarth, 7BMS, 8th grade, 4.52 PM.

Honorable mentions:

Olivia Metcalf, Bell Middle School (BMS), 7th grade, When I Was a Young Forest.

Jacob Sorkin, 7BMS, 8th grade, Nature and Its Superiority.

Carly Stern, BMS, 7th grade, On the Beach.

Middle School Fiction

First place: Hannah Saven, 7BMS, 7th grade, To Light a Fire.

Second place: Elizabeth Dee, Bell MS, 7th grade, Off-Kilter.

Third place: Sasha Whittaker, 7BMS, 8th grade, The Man By the Window.

Honorable mentions:

Hannah Brock, Bell MS, 6th grade, Crumbs.

Sasha Zemsky, Bell MS, 8th grade, Better Not to Know.

Middle School Non-fiction

First place: Carly Stern, Bell MS 7th grade, A Corner of the World.

Second place: Matt Buckner, 7BMS, 8th grade, Look at Us: A Family of Seven.

Third place: Olivia Metcalf, Bell MS, 7th grade, Che: A Hero for Today’s Youth.

Honorable mentions:

Divya Gopinath, 7BMS, 6th grade, Super Genes Can’t Come to the Rescue.

Riya Verma, 7BMS, 6th grade, A Journey through India: A Land of Contrasts.

HIGH SCHOOL AWARDS (All students are from Horace Greeley High School)

High School Poetry

First place: Brooke Biederman, 11th grade, The Poem I Almost Wrote.

Second place: Miriam Gleckman, 11th grade, Breaking Dishes.

Third place: Evan Ross, 12th grade, A Letter.

Honorable mention:

Zachey Kliger, 11th grade, The Search Emma Pile, 10th grade, Unspoken Whispers of High School

High School Fiction

First place: Julie Safferstein, 11th grade, Lilies and Meat Sauce

Second place: Miriam Gleckman, 11th grade, Windex Under the Passenger’s Seat

Third place: Alison Goldberg, 10th grade, Pointe Taken

Honorable mentions:

Zach Ehrlich, 11th grade, Designers

Mike Stanton, 12th grade, Entropy

Yasamune Toyotomi, 11th grade, Magnum Opus

High School Non-fiction

First place: Grant Q. He, 12th grade, Trinity

Second place: Claire Liu, 11th grade, A Humid Day in the Countryside

Third place (tie): Calla Smith-Triglia, 12th grade, The Grandest Canyon

Third place (tie): Zach Schonfeld, 12th grade, Falling Through the Cracks: the Top Nine Reasons I Don’t Use Facebook

Honorable mention:

Cheryl Cho, 11th grade, This I Believe
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Cheryl Jacobs Ehrlich is on the board of the Friends of the Chappaqua Library and a contributor to NewCastleNOW.org.