Twenty-four MSMS students earned 93 writing awards at the Jan. 29 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with 14 students winning the Gold Key Award and senior Claire Rizzo nominated for the American Voices Award.
The Gold Key Award allows students to advance to the national level of the competition, and the American Voices Award is one of the event’s highest honors.
“Usually, more than 100,000 students submit nationwide, bringing the total tally of works to the several hundred thousand range,” MSMS Creative Writing teacher Thomas Richardson said. “Less than 1 percent of pieces will be recognized on the national level.”
Students spend a lot of time perfecting their submitted works. Senior Harrison Shao said he put a lot of effort into his personal essay, “My 89th Key,” which earned him a Gold Key Award.
“I started to draft this essay last summer. As the fall semester progressed, I made edits to my essay whenever ideas came to me,” he said. “Mr. Richardson took a look and gave me feedback. My family also gave me some valuable comments.”
Rizzo said her memoir, “Welcome to the Delta,” was a love letter to her hometown, Cleveland, so she’s happy it was nominated for the American Voices Award.
“I sought to describe the persevering nature of the region and the resilience of its residents, despite its dark and challenging past,” Rizzo said. “It’s an honor to finally receive a nomination. It has been my goal since I first entered [the competition] years ago. I hope my works serve as an opportunity for readers to see my home in a different light.”
Richardson said literary competitions have a larger meaning to himself and competing students.
“Recognition from programs like this is validating, but winning is not the real goal of the course or even participating in the competition in the first place,” he said. “The most important thing for me is students understand writing is a process with many steps, and preparing pieces for public consumption helps us refine our craft.”
Overall, Richardson said MSMS students’ success in literary competitions is because of their unique ways of thinking.
“[MSMS] students have varied interests, which often leads to dynamic vocabularies, creativity and complex and philosophical thinking — a recipe for creative writing success,” Richardson said. “Our students are great writers because they’re great thinkers and students.”
