Beverly Teens Honored For Poetry In 29th Annual Contest

BEVERLY, MA — The creativity and writing ability of Beverly teens were celebrated in the Beverly Public Library's 29th annual Teen Poetry Contest.

Meara Reader earned first place in the middle school division for "Women's Fight." Anonymous was awarded second place for "I Am, Now, I Don't." Ella Barker was awarded third place for "Fur Elise."

Ruo Xian earned first place in the high school division for "Pantoum on Pantun." Lola Prendergast earned second place for "Plowing Poem." Anonymous was awarded third place for "Stupid, Ugly, Dumb (at least, next to him)."

This year's contest drew more than 360 entries with a judging panel including Winter Street Writers Group founder Liz Ciampa, Montserrat College of Art Writing Studio Director Colleen Michaels 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:

Middle School Division

Violet Acheson for “And I Think About Summer”
Aine Bartok for “Honest Poem”
Johan Carlson-Leir for “The man laying on the wall”
Hope Dobkowski for “ A Life Like the Ocean”
Lily Filloon for “The eraser”
Samuel Hammar for “Our Generations”
Norah Hart for “On Stage”
Zoe Schwartz for “Siblings” and “The Adopt-A-Nerd Project”
Miya Tsuji for “The Travel Radio”

High School Division

Leanna Dang for “Red Spider Lily”
Juliette Hale for “I’m blown away by your underlying presence”
Sorelle I. for “Tia Maria Estrada’s Empanadas”
Francisco Jarrin for “The Beauty of Change”
Addison Park for “Nap Away The Sorrows”
Abigail Peabody for “Fly”
Isabella Scherbarth for “Going Home”
Yishine Shi for “I once was a child”
Katherine Steinmetz for “Someday I’ll see your lipstick”
Evonny Wleh for “Growth of the girl”

(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.)