STATE — The Telling Room, a literary arts education organization whose mission is to empower youth through writing and share their voices with the world, is thrilled to recognize fourteen young authors from across Maine as county winners in the 17th Annual Statewide Writing Contest.
Kate Dilworth, an eleventh grader at Hebron Academy, wrote “Ballet-Slipper Pink” about the experience that made her realize her childhood was over via the action of painting over her pink bedroom walls. Kate writes about her relationship with her parents and her emotions about leaving her childhood behind.
Each year, The Telling Room encourages Maine youth to submit work to the annual contest, and this year in total, received 300 submissions of creative writing. The winners were selected by a panel of judges that included booksellers, local authors, editors, publishers, Telling Room alumni, and current Telling Room students. Students in The Telling Room’s Publishing Workshop set the standards by which each piece of writing was judged and had the final say in selecting winners.
To recognize the wide geographic participation in this year’s contest, The Telling Room honored one writer from each of Maine’s fourteen participating counties as a county winner, in addition to the grand prize winner. Lily Jessen’s poem “Never” was selected as both the grand prize winner and the Cumberland County winner.
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