Natalie Lopez, Executive Editor
@nlopezcourant
Sophomores Neya Krishnan and Elena Unger, and freshman Gabby Streinger, won the Power of the Pen competition orchestrated by English teachers Kristen Brown and Maggie Hamill. An event was held on April 23 in the Wagner Room, which all three winners and six honorable mentions read their pieces to a crowd of students, teachers, and parents.
Ms. Brown created the competition this year, “I’ve wanted to start a writing contest here for awhile now,” she said. “I believe it’s important for students to share their writing with a larger audience than just their teacher. It always seems like such a shame when students write such beautiful and powerful pieces of work and only one person, usually the teacher, gets to see it.”
The creation of Power of the Pen was inspired by the discontinuation of the Trumbull Arts Festival, that was open to Fairfield County. Ms. Brown and Hamill decided on a competition on a smaller scale. “There’s state ones, and there’s plenty of national ones, but there’s something nice about celebrating your writing at home and having those around you get to see it,” Ms. Hamill said.
Students were asked to submit works of personal writing, and with thirty-nine submissions the judging panel had their hands full. “The selection process was really challenging since there were so many beautiful piece of writing submitted this year,” Ms. Brown said.
“We asked for a small group of teachers, and one administrator who has an English teaching background, to help read the entries. We split up the entries so that each judge read 10-15 personal pieces, making sure that each entry was read twice by two different judges.”
Both teachers hope for an increase in submissions next year. “We hope that the event will take off, and over the next few years, we can expand the contest to include creative writing, satirical writing, and maybe even expository writing,” Ms. Brown said.
Out of these thirty-nine submissions, the three winners will have their pieces published in The Spectator, the school literary magazine. Along with having their work published, the winners also received a $50 gift card to Elm Street Books.
The Power of the Pen was created to help students feel like their voice is heard. Ms. Hamill said,“We want to remind you that your writing can make a difference, you can make an impact. If it’s change you want to see, you can do that, and it’s not just writing for a grade.”
