Beverly Teen Poet Winners Chosen Out Of 450+ Entrants

BEVERLY, MA — Winners and honorable mention recipients were awarded on Tuesday out of the more than 450 entries received for the 28th annual Beverly Public Library Annual Teen Poetry Contest.

In the Middle School Division, the winners are James Daoust in 3rd place for "some random poem I made part 2," Katie Daniels in second place for "A CD considers its music," and Sydney Brown in first place for "What Shall I Say?"

In the High School Division, the winners are Johnny Sheridan in third place for "Sweet Dreams," Michael Towne-Smith in second place for "Pupa," and Johnny Sheridan in first place for "Elegy for the Impermanent."

The poems were judged blindly by a panel of accomplished local poets, Kevin Carey, the Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University, Liz Ciampa, a founder of the Winter Street Writers group and Aly Pierce, author of "The Visible Planets" and "Cryptids."

The poetry contest is supported by the Friends of the Beverly Public Library, Joan Nelson, and all of the parents, teachers and school librarians who encouraged their students to enter.

The following students all won honorable mentions:

Emma Conway for "Forgettable"
Charlie Cook for "Through my Telescope"
Liana for "A Woman"
Rory Horan for "The phantom cat"
Lequontavious Jarmanious Jaquan Lamar Quandale Lapaix III for "The boy from Rosario"
Bianca Loiacano for "Series of haikus"
Cornelia Sollins for "I Hate It Just As Much As You"
Cornelia Sollins for "Ode to Pointe"
Miya Tsuji for “An Ode to Soccer Fields"
Destiny Albanese for "My Mother, My Father"
Skyler Bickmore for "The M&M Not Taken"
Arianna B. for "Ballad of Nicole Duennebier's "Still Life With Meat Pile'"
Amy Cai for "MATH"
Sabela de Haro Borras for "Dichotomy"
Scarlett for "A Photo Of Us"
Claire Fitzgerald for "learning"
Riley E. Michael for "The Bathroom Girls"
JJ Niemann for "The Dreamer"
Colin Vellante for "Wood Doves"

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)