Students From Tri-Valley High Schools Win Writing Awards

LIVERMORE, CALIF.: A dozen students from Tri-Valley high schools were recently honored for their essays, poetry and short stories that won awards in a contest sponsored by the Tri-Valley Writers, a branch of the California Writers Club. The students were recognized at a Sunday ceremony in the Livermore Library on May 20.

The keynote speaker was Mitali Perkins. She has written ten novels for young readers, including "You Bring the Distant Near," which won the Walter Dean Myers Honor Award and was nominated for the National Book Award. According to Perkins, students can use their writing to bring people together or to divide them. She said writing is a powerful tool and encouraged students to use it for pleasure, peace-making and protesting.

"It takes great courage for students to submit writing to strangers to evaluate and comment on it," Tri-Valley Writers President Patricia Boyle said. "I'm proud of the students who entered the contest and took the risk of sharing their work."

Essay winners include: First Place, Nivriti Krishnamurthy, "The Bird That Showed Me Beauty" (Dublin); Second Place, Meghna Pamula, "The Permanence of Plastic" (Dougherty Valley); Third Place, Arushi Avachat, "of honey and spice" (Foothill); and Honorable Mention, Ananya Varshneya, "In My Eyes" (Dublin).

Poetry awards went to: First Place, Melanie Kim, "The Colors of Jingxi" (Monte Vista); Second Place, Annie Pollak, "Years" (San Ramon Valley); Third Place, Jill Lee, "missing april showers, missing may girl" (Dougherty Valley); and Honorable Mention, Yuwei Dou, "Bike Riding" (Amador).

Short story award recipients are: First Place, Yuwei Dou, "Becoming Nancy" (Amador); Second Place, Chloe Jeon, "The Silver Brooch" (Amador); Third Place, Janice Liu, "Cherish" (Dublin); Honorable Mention, Cassidy Cheng, "The Real Award" (Foothill); and Honorable Mention, Alison Wu, "Leafless Trees" (Amador).

Connie Hanstedt was the Tri-Valley Writers chair for the contest. The CWC Tri-Valley Branch invites writers of all genres and experience levels to learn about their craft at its monthly meetings. For more information about the CWC Tri-Valley Branch, contact Patricia Boyle at president@trivalleywriters.org or visit http://www.trivalleywriters.org.