Announcing the Winners of the 2019 Booth Tarkington Prize for Young Writers

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2019 Booth Tarkington Prize for Young Writers!  We had a record number of submissions and were blown away by their quality! Congratulations to all!

Elementary 

 

Fiction

Winner – Bella Groothuis, “Aloe”

Runner-up – Lily Claire Goodson, “How the Roomba was Invented”

Honorable Mentions –
Prudence Peng, “Test Your Luck”

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Poetry

Winner – Gregory Whitworth-Neufeld, “At the Table”

Runner-up – Eleanor Snopek, “The Best Part of Me”

Honorable Mentions –
Amelia McKenna, “Me”
Prudence Peng, “Penguins”
Gregory Whitworth-Neufeld, “The Nihilist”

Middle School 

 

Fiction

Winner – Gabrielle Hadad, “Hotel Loup Gris”

Runner up – Avery Barbosa-Hayes, “Different”

Honorable Mentions –
Tannon Rogers, “Elementals”
Jonah Smith, “The Final Chance”
Maren Smith, “Katie’s Dreams”

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Poetry

Winner – Sade Okeyemi, “Black and White”

Runner-up – Maxwell Habel, “In the Windowsill of a 3rd Story Window”

Honorable Mentions –
Will Chambley, “Ocean”
Hannah McKenna, “Rose”
Evelina Rubchinsky, “Discovering a Tree and Weed”

High School

 

Fiction

Winner – Jillian Hagerty, “Questions of Religion”

Runner-up – Tobi Avey, Untitled

Honorable Mentions –
Payton Mountjoy, “Shopkeeper’s Bell”
Hannah Preston, Untitled

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Poetry

Winner – Nathan Phuong, “100% Cotton”

Runner-up – Khanae Miller, Untitled

Honorable Mentions –
Karina Enerson, “The tree and the little red wagon”
Nathan Phuong, “A Man in an NRA Jersey, Exercising”
Leo Rubchinsky, “Campfire”