Teen Writing Contest 2010
Click on the photos to the left to read the winning entries.
On February 19, 2010, the Youth Voices Network held the winners' reading for the second annual Teen Writing Contest. Over a hundred students submitted poems, short stories, and essays under the theme "NYC Fairy Tales featuring Healthy Relationships."
Day One and the Youth Voices Network would like to thank all the young people who submitted their work and congratulate our winners:
POETRY WINNERS
First Place: Daniel Chen
Second Place: Anais Nsang
Third Place: Jamilah Ray
PROSE WINNERS
First Place: Andurina Panezo
Second Place: Jessica Cassetta
Third Place: Alison Lam
Daniel Chen
Edward R. Murrow High School
First Place: Poetry
My Son
Oh, my son to be.
Someday, when you are free
out of my loved one's womb,
I promise to raise you until I reach my tomb.
Click here to read the full poem.
Anais Nsang
Brooklyn International School, Brooklyn
Second Place: Poetry
Essential
There was a time I never let you console me,
I never let you pat my long dark hair.
Swallowing my pain, my heart became a lost bottle in an ocean of tears.
Click here to read the full poem.
Jamilah Ray
New Dorp High School
Third Place: Poetry
To My Love
When I met you,
I had that feeling,
the feeling where you get butterflies,
you can't breathe, you shake in your shoes.
I looked into your eyes,
and I was in a trance.
Click here to read the full poem.
Andurina Panezo
Edward R. Murrow High School
First Place: Prose
Crossed Star
The used tissues covered the maple floor like snowballs in a midwinter night. The bed sheets were halfway up Sheba's knees while the half empty cup of coffee on her right dresser was getting cold. Her eyes were twitching, and she unconsciously rubbed the side of her temple with her index finger. Through the window blinds, she spotted a pigeon picking at a half eaten cheese puff on the snow and making his way past the bundled bodies, hiding their faces from the wind. The telephone had been ringing for the past half hour, but she never bothered to get up. The simple thought of getting out of bed and finding her slippers, which were somewhere beneath the bed, fatigued her. She had been crying until her eyes no longer produced tears and now tissues were plucked out of the Kleenex box out of habit.
Click here to read the full story.
Jessica Casetta
New Dorp High School
Second Place: Prose
That Night at the Carnival
Linda Rivers ran over to her desk and opened the top drawer. She was looking for the scissors that she always kept in the corner of the drawer. She had to hurry, there were people waiting for her downstairs and it was getting late. All she had to do was cut the annoying piece of thread that was hanging from her dress. It wasn't much of a big thing, but she wanted everything to be perfect today.
Click here to read the full story.
Alison Lam
Edward R. Murrow High School
Third Place: Prose
A Silver Lining in Manhattan
They were no prince and princess, and they definitely didn't live the fairy tale life. They were both sixteen. She was the daughter of a man who was the owner of one of the biggest companies in New York City and he worked at a grocery store that just happened to be a block or two down. The building of the company was located in the heart of Manhattan. Her father was always away on business trips around the world, but everyone who was around the place knew something bad was going on behind the doors of the big building. She rarely showed herself, but whenever she did, you could see the slight bruises here and there. One could already guess the owner was an abusive father.
Click here to read the full story.
