Skip to main content

OPA 2023 Student Contest Winners

By
The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2023 High School Poetry Contests. Eligible poems were sent to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. Manningham Trust Student Poetry Contest. All winning poems receive monetary awards and publication in an OPA chapbook. The grand prize-winning poem will be published in the 2024 issue of Common Threads, OPA's annual anthology.

We sincerely thank each contest sponsor and judge and congratulate the teachers from each school with student winning poems and honorable mentions. Special thanks to contest coordinator Jessica Weyer-Bentley for all her hard work to coordinate this year’s contests.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
"Dementia" - Austin Blake, Buckeye Local H.S.
Teacher: Stephanie Crust

Category 1. Ethos 
Sponsor and Judge: Chuck Salmons 
1st: "I Set Myself to Sound" - Diana Zhang (The Seven Hills School)
2nd: "Dora" - Anna Kunkel (The Seven Hills School)
3rd: "Doubling Up" - Ahalya Nambiar (The Seven Hills School)
HM: Alex McDiffin (Buckeye Local H.S.) and Clair Liu (The Seven Hills School)

Category 2. Free Verse
Sponsor and Judge: Jessica Weyer Bentley
1st: "The King in Red" - Sebastian Owsley (Bath H.S.)
2nd: "P.S. She's the Stars" - Evy LaBare (The Seven Hills School)
3rd: "Golden Cliffs" - Lauren Vordem Esche (The Seven Hills School)

Category 3. Humor
Sponsor and Judge: Pat Snyder Hurley
1st: " 'Almost' Snowy Day" - Chris Ebright (Buckeye Local H.S.)

Category 4. Metrical Measures
Sponsor and Judge: Betsy Hughes
1st: "Dementia" - Austin Blake (Buckeye Local H.S.)
2nd: "Dear _________" - Emma Cales (Bath H.S.)
3rd: "Zoned Out" - Olivia Dorris (Sylvania Northview H.S.)
HM: Alec Finney (Buckeye Local H.S.), Anna Songer (Pleasant H.S.), and Allison Emfield (Buckeye Local H.S.)

Category 5. Lyric Poem
Sponsor and Judge: Simple Simon Press
1st: "The Arrival of Snow" - Rebeka Repp (Northview H.S.)
2nd: "Limerence" - Dougie Schecter (The Seven Hills School)
3rd: "Popular" - Sydney Snyder (Buckeye Local H.S.)
HM: Caiden Younger (Centennial H.S.), Maddix Richter (Buckeye Local H.S.), and Betty Bolock (Buckeye Local H.S.)

Category 6. Nature Poem
Sponsor and Judge: Kerry Trautman
1st: "Withering Flower" - Rahifa Maricar (Walnut Hills H.S.)
2nd: "Thunderstorm" - Shlok Mehta (The Seven Hills School)
HM: Arica Robertson (Struthers H.S.)

Category 7. Bill Molina: Celebration of Life’s Journey
Sponsor: Kelly Sagert; Judge: Dianne Borsenik
1st: "9 hours until vacation" - Addy Bonomo (Buckeye Local H.S.)
2nd: "Living life like a tree" - Dakota Turner (Buckeye Local H.S.)
3rd: "To Be Remembered" - Charlotte Quick (Sylvania Northview H.S.)
HM: Aidin Hosenfeld (Buckeye Local H.S.)

Category 8. Meter and Rhyme
Sponsor and Judge: Mark F. Stone
1st: "Fortnite's Blessing" - Aidin Hosenfeld (Buckeye Local H.S.)
2nd: "I Do Not Hate You" - Anna Songer (Pleasant H.S.)
3rd: "I Wish I Could See You" - Alexis Burress (Buckeye Local H.S.)
HM: Adison Muldrew (Buckeye Local H.S.) and Alyssa Dailey (Buckeye Local H.S.)


Labels:
Location: Ohio, USA

Comments

New comments are not allowed.

Popular posts from this blog

OPA Ambassadors Report: NE Ohio with Ray McNiece

By
From the frozen tundra of the Firelands, through the rusty blast furnace of Cleveland, along the Crooked River’s ice chattering shallows of Kent, down to the worn rubber slushy tire churn of Akron, to the gritty grey clang of Youngstown there’s hot stove poetry cooking this winter all across the Northeast corner of Ohio. We boast a plethora of venues from bookstores, libraries, coffeehouses, cocktail bars and clubs where you can hear the varied carols of our poets should you dare venture out into our perpetually grey climes. Here’s a few highlights, some upcoming features and a reminder of ongoing workshops and reading series. In early December Billy Collins read at CWRU’s Maltz Center to a packed house. He often visits Cleveland thanks to George Bilgere of JCU. John Burroughs had a front row seat. The Tongue in Groove Poetry Music Jam (every third Sunday at the Millard Fillmore on Waterloo hosted by Ray McNiece) featured Mwatabu Okantah reading from his new book A Black Voice in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Odes of October 2024 Contest Winners Announced

By
OPA is pleased to announce that our judge for 2024, Karen Scott, has chosen the three winners and three runners-up for the 2024 Odes of October contest. First prize is awarded for "Restless Peace," by Jo Anne Moser Gibbons. First prize includes an award of $65 and inclusion in the 2025 issue of Common Threads, as well being published below. Second prize goes to "Scarecrow," by Dr. Anna Cates. This prize includes an award of $25 and appears below. Third prize goes to "Fall," also by Jo Anne Moser Gibbons. This prize includes an award of $10 and appears below. Honorable mention poems were: "Rite of Passage," by Claire Scott Rubin "Alone in Silence," by Jonathan Smith "Assassination Attempt Haiku," by Susan Glassmeyer Karen said she found her task made more difficult by the high quality of submissions, so each participant should be congratulated for their work. We thank them for participating and being a member of the OPA. A spe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid named 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year

By
The Ohio Poetry Day Association has selected Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid as our 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year. Congratulations to these two amazing writers! Barbara Sabol was selected for her book of poems, WATERMARK: Poems of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889 (Alternating Current Press, 2023) .  The poems in WATERMARK follow the path of the “great flood,” from the time prior to the perfect storm of events resulting in the disaster to the devastating aftermath and the reclamation of a bustling industrial city. The book is a poetic testimony of the great flood story through voices of the unidentified victims; their circumstances and lives imagined from morgue entries. The narrative also paints the backdrop of recovery and renewal, in the voices of survivors, telegraphers, aid workers, and historical figures such as Clara Barton. Watermark is a lyric narrative of this country’s largest and most dramatic flood of the 19th century, told from the perspective of those whose lives it ...
Post a Comment
Read more