The Morehead Writing Project is proud to recognize nine Eastern Kentucky writers from Bath, Fleming, Harlan, Mason, and Wolfe County high schools and the Craft Academy who earned a collective six Gold Keys, three Silver Keys, and one Honorable Mention as well as an American Voices nomination.
Despite a contest season plagued by technical challenges, these writers patiently persisted and came through winners in the Eastern Kentucky Region of the 2024 Scholastic Writing Awards:
- Adi Hockenberry, a senior at Harlan County High School, won a Gold Key in the Portfolio category for Tulle and Gauze
- Ava Wamsley, a senior at Mason County High School, won a Gold Key in the Critical Essay category for Two Authors That Are Not Often Compared
- Lisa Abrampah, a junior at the Craft Academy, won a Gold Key in the Poetry category for Auntie Please; One More Meatpie. Abrampah is also the American Voices nominee for the region.
- Clover Mullins, a junior at Wolfe County High School, won a Silver Key in the Poetry category for How To Be A Good Student
- Alexis Armstrong, a junior at Bath County High School, won a Gold Key in the Dramatic Script category for I Wash My Hands of It and received an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category for Princess
- Kiley Robinson, a junior at Fleming County High School, won a Gold Key in the Short Story category for Caged
- Kristen Smith, a sophomore at Wolfe County High School, won a Silver Key in the Short Story category for Too Old To Change It
- Nathan Ebright-Gray, a senior at Mason County High School, won both a Gold Key and a Silvery Key in the Science Fiction & Fantasy category for The Asylum and Operation Ragnarok: The End of the Asgard Mafia
- Jasper Richardson, a junior at Bath County High School, won a Gold Key in the Personal Essay & Memoir Category for Self Aware
Presented by the nonprofit organization the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the country’s longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative students in grades 7–12. This year nine creative teens from the Eastern Kentucky Writing Region received regional honors including Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and American Voices nominations from local Scholastic Awards Affiliate the Morehead Writing Project and will be honored in an upcoming ceremony thanks to the support of the MSU Foundation.
Since the program’s founding in 1923, the Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students and include a distinguished list of alumni such as Tschabalala Self, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, Amanda Gorman, Charles White, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andy Warhol, all of whom received recognition in the Awards when they were teens.
For Gold Key works the opportunities for recognition will continue when the works are considered for national honors, including a wealth of additional opportunities, such as scholarships and inclusion in the annual anthology of award-winning teen writing. Poets who win national awards are considered for the National Student Poets Program, the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work.
For 100 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have offered creative teens a safe space to freely express themselves through drawings, poetry, paintings, fashion design, short stories, essays, and at times through composing music, soap carving, fingerpainting, and more. By judging work using the core tenets of originality, skill, and personal vision and voice, the Awards have always been a place where freedom of expression is valued and recognized. Celebrate a century of the Awards with a look back at what the program has meant to some of our alumni and help us celebrate the transformative power of the first 100 years of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.