Celebrating youth writing

Adolescence always brings heightened awareness of the changes in one’s life. But participants in the Bay Area Book Festival’s third annual Young Authors Writing Competition had unique responses to this year’s theme, “Change: The world, and the people in it, are in a constant state of flux; nothing truly every remains the same.”

Jacqueline He, an 11th grader at the Harker School in San Jose, won the combined 11th and 12th grade division with her short story “House of God.” Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez’s magical realism, she writes about the disruption to the young narrator’s family, and the ideas of holiness in the small town they live in, when God moves in next door.

“I’ve always been fascinated with this genre and its relevance to contemporary literature,” said He, founder of a literary magazine called the Icarus Anthology.

She plans to research magical realism this summer as one of Harker’s Mitra Excellence in Humanities Endowment scholars, and hopes to continue writing in college.

In the 10th grade division, Katherine Davis of Fremont High School in Sunnyvale took top honors for her untitled composition, a tale of how war transforms a mother and son’s close relationships, first through distance and then through physical and emotional damage.

Elizabeth Ding, a ninth grader at Saratoga High School, also examined the change — and continuity — of two family members’ relationship after one has been injured. Her short story about two sisters, one with memory loss, is titled “Remembrance.”

The three divisions included second- and thirdplace awards. The nine winners overall received cash prizes from $50 to $100. The authors will read their works at 10:30 a.m. June 3 in the Community Meeting Room at the Berkeley Public Library. Additional winners: 11th/12th grade

2nd place: “Yellow Bastards,” by Bianca Zhou, Dougherty Valley High School (San Ramon)

3rd place: Untitled, by Shawn Jiang, Dougherty Valley High School 10th grade

2nd place: “Dark Blue,” by Christine Wan, American High School (Fremont)

3rd place, “Never Been Better,” by Prameela Kottapali, the Harker School 9th grade

2nd place: “Esperanza,” by Sophie Rodriguez-Bell, Berkeley High School

3rd place: “Anomaly,” by Kai Levenson-Cupp, Alameda Science & Technology Institute