Mastering the Blank Page: The Best of the Blacker Prizes

"The writing program at the Belmont Public Schools exists to help students master the blank page," said Lindsey Rinder as she introduced a trio of seniors who filled those pages with brilliant analysis and writing and were honored with this year's Lillian F. Blacker Prizes for Excellence in Writing.

Rinder, the director of English in the Belmont School District, hosted the 32nd Blacker Prize ceremony held Wednesday, May 15 in the High School's library, in which the department celebrated not just individual excellence but a dedication to writing and literature.

In a graduation requirement that one would expect at a classics secondary school or in an advanced course in college, each Belmont High senior develops and writes a thesis over the course of the school year, with the help of the English staff and their peers.

"The fact that they begin by writing stories about buried treasure in first grade and, by the time they graduate, are writing critical analyses of literature synthesizing multiple primary and secondary sources ... is testimony to both our students' endeavor and to their education," she said.

"I believe Belmont High School's dedication to the senior thesis and to writing education in general singles it out among secondary schools," said Rinder

The winning thesis came from Carnegie Mellon-bound Anqi Wan who explored "Consciousness to Oblivion: Obliterating Escapes in the Work of David Foster Wallace" that includes a stylish and gripping depiction of boredom so that ennui  "never sounded so good," commented Rinder.  

Jeff Gortmaker – who will be attending Columbia, the alma mater of his subject, Paul Auster – wrote on the liberation from voluntary confinement in selected works of the author who is best known for his exploration of transcendentalism and absurdity.

Admitting he is no fan of traditional literary devices –  allegory, metaphor and the like – the thought of tackling absurd aspects in novels "sounded like fun," said Gortmaker. 

Ben Goodman has been on the big stage before, as a member of the 2012 national champion economics team. The senior, who is heading to Swarthmore College, caused a stir in the English Department with his thesis "'Pick Any Strand and Snip': The Politics of Unrealiable Narration in the Works of Margaret Atwood," in which Goodman questioned the validity of political fiction "by squaring off against established literary critics," said Rinder.  

And while the Blacker Prizes honors the best among the senior class, Rinder noted to the audience that dozens of students produced notable examples of excellent essays.

You can read or download each of the winning theses as well as other notable selections located on this Web page as pdf files.

In a peculiar oddity, each of the winners said they will likely focus their undergraduate years in the physical sciences rather than literature.

But as Rinder noted, the Blacker Prizes "acknowledge the centrality of reading and writing to ... all learning." 

All three winners reflected on how much they learned from the process of writing the senior thesis, and their English educations in general. 

As Gortmaker said, thanking his English teachers, “You’ve taught me how to be critical, creative, and confident with my ideas, and that’s all that I can ask for.”