Area students among writing contest winners

Seven Cuyahoga County high school students have been chosen for awards in Ursuline College’s Sew Me A Story writing contest.

First place goes to Shivangi Sengupta of Lakewood for “Nothing Like Brocade.” Shivangi is a student of Ann Klotz at Laurel School. Second place goes to Mathilde Tomter of Cleveland Heights for “The Motley Patches of My Family.” Mathilde is a student of Kate Bernardo at Beaumont School.

The five students awarded honorable mention are (in alphabetical order):

• Kerrigan von Carlowitz, a Beaumont School student from Painesville, for “This Quilt Is Us.” Her teacher is Kate Bernardo.

• Menachem Edelstein, a Fuchs Mizrachi School student from Beachwood, for “Memory Lane.” His teacher is Anna Bolman.

• Maggie Hall, a Mayfield High School student from Mayfield Village, for “One Big Mess.” Her teacher is Kari Beery.

• Sara Jarecke, a Lakewood High School student from Lakewood, for “Mismatched.” Her teachers are Kate Brady and Susan Cesa.

• Anyia Tables, a Villa Angela –Saint Joseph High School student from Cleveland, for “No History.” Her teacher is Christin VanAtta.

All seven winners’ works will be included in Ursuline’s award-winning fine arts annual, Inscape, which will be published in the spring.

“We were overjoyed to receive so many thoughtful, well-written works in poetry and prose from high school students,” said Celeste Wiggins, PhD, professor emerita in Ursuline’s English Department and coordinator of the contest. “It is heartening to witness students embracing writing as a creative outlet and employing literary devices in meaningful ways.”

More than 100 students from 17 Cuyahoga County high schools, both public and private, submitted entries to the contest. They were invited to create prose or poetry describing what a quilt representing their family story might look like.

The prizes to be awarded are $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $100 for each of the five honorable mentions.

The contest was made possible by the support of the Cleveland Foundation, through the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, and by the Cleveland Public Library.

Jurors were Julie Liedtke, manager of the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Orange Branch; Anna Benedikt, teen librarian at the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Orange Branch; Jeanne Colleran, PhD, professor of English at John Carroll University; and Adenike Davidson, PhD, professor of English and gender studies at Delaware State University.