UPDATE: Heather Parks of Wolfe County High School is a National American Voices medal winner and will be honored June 7-9 at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
This year the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are celebrating 100 years, but an even more important event here in Eastern Kentucky is the celebration of the very first writing award winners of the Eastern Kentucky Writing Region. The Morehead Writing Project cannot wait to honor our winners in person during an April award celebration. We hope that teachers interested in supporting the 2023 contest will reach out to Contest Coordinator Stacie May as we would love to have some educators and students attend the event in addition to the winners and their families and teachers. Use our celebration event to inspire your writers! Space is limited so reach out soon.
Eastern Kentucky Writing Region winners include writers from East Carter High School, Fleming County High School, Russell High School, and Wolfe County High School:
- Addison Duff of Fleming County High School is a Silver Key – Short Story with “The prince and His Guard.” Alora Chesney, educator.
- Christopher Stephens of East Carter High School is a Silver Key – Short Story with “The City of Robbery.” Jessie Marshall, educator
- Erin Carpenter of Fleming County High School is a Gold Key, American Voices Nominee – Poetry with “Symphonies of Morbid Despair.” Alora Chesney, educator.
- Heather Parks of Wolfe County High School is a Gold Key, American Voices Nominee – Short Story with “Christmas Angel;” Gold Key, American Voices Nominee – Novel Writing with “The Beauty in the Beast;” and Gold Key, American Voices Nominee – Journalism with “Swift Silver Mine.” Lisa Creech, educator.
- Jordyn Simmons of Fleming County High School is a Silver Key – Personal Essay & Memoir with “Through Pain and Adversity, Comes a Dream.” Alora Chesney, educator.
- Katie Newsom of Fleming County High School is a Silver Key – Personal Essay & Memoir with “Pressure.” Alora Chesney, educator.
- Makeighly Dos Santos of Russell High School is a Gold Key – Writing Portfolio (Poetry) with “The Song,” “The Little Secret,” “Home,” “Shattered,” and “My Perspective” as well as a Silver Key for “Draft,” “Standards,” “Freedom to Write,” “The Worst of Us,” and “American Freedom.” Jennifer Spade, educator
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, which marks 100 years of the Awards, more than 100,000 teens from across the United States and Canada entered more than 300,000 works of art and writing. Seven creative teens from the Eastern Kentucky Writing Region received regional honors. The seven young writers earned Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and American Voices nominations from local Scholastic Awards Affiliate the Morehead Writing Project and will be honored at an April 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. National awards will be announced on March 22, 2023.
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.
Contact Contest Coordinator Stacie May or Morehead Writing Project Site Director Deanna Mascle if you are a middle or high school teacher interested in working with the Eastern Kentucky Writing Region in the fall.