Beverly Teen Poetry Contest Winners Celebrated

BEVERLY, MA — Julianna Leahy earned top honors in the high school division and Zachary Walsh in the middle school division of this year's Beverly Public Library Teen Poetry Contest.

The library said there were more than 390 submissions with winners announced for three middle school and three high school students and 16 honorable mentions.

Leahy earned first-place honors in the high school division for her poem "How to bake cookies"; Carmella Mastrangelo was second for "Simple"; Lola Prendergast was third for "Stay of Execution."

Walsh earned first-place honors in the middle school division for his poem "Life"; Maia Schor was second for "Breakfast"; Caleb Sylvester was third for "The Bar."

The poems were judged blindly by a panel of incredibly 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 Colleen Micheals, who directs the Writing Studio at Montserrat College of Art.

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:

Rhoads Kent for "never me"
Nyla Melody for "Simple things"
Annabelle Miller for "Spring Time"
Adam Morrison for "A Rotting Branch"
Asher Sauder for "The Cove"
Katherine Steinmetz for "Jail"
Hazel Streb for "Not Fragile Like A Flower, Fragile Like a Bomb — Frida Kahlo"
Molly Waltz for "Reluctant: A Page Poem"
Eli Bayaer for "attempt at a poem"
Eliana Brown for "I am From…" (inspired by "I am From" by George Ella Lyon)”
Ruo-Xian Chan for "Wheatfield with Crows"
Abby Cournoyer for "It's our fault"
Cole Fowler for "The Sport of Failure"
Dylan McCay for "Opt For Fun"
Anthony Moca for "Car"

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