Award Winners

• • Excerpt from the short story “Sari”

     

    Out of the box came yards and yards of delicate blue fabric with silver detailing on the edges.

     

    “It’s a sari,” explained my mother. “Indian women wear them everywhere. I thought maybe you could wear it to prom….and look, it matches your eyes!”

     

    I smiled brightly. “Thanks, Mom.” My mother, with her tanned skin and dark hair and eyes, would have looked right at home in a sari. I, with my red hair and freckles, would look ridiculous in one. The pretty fabric would look better crumpled on the floor of my closet than it would on my body. As my brother expressed similarily fake gratitude for his gift – a handmade pan flute from Greece – my eyes floated over to my dad, who was leaning against the kitchen door, watching my mother warily. These semiannual visits were always awkward, but there was an unspoken ban on complaining. Dad led by example on this front, though he had cooked so many dinners, checked so much homework, and sat through so many of my choral performances and Ben’s soccer games every week that I thought he had more right to complain than Ben and me combined.

     

    After the presents were opened and the paper disposed of, Mom took me and Ben and our overnight bags out to her shiny, rented Sorento. As I went out the door, my dad kissed me on the cheek.

    Shelby Bouck

    Fort Walton Beach High School, Okaloosa County
  • Excerpt from the nonfiction piece “One for the Board (My Life as a Cascio)

    Some of my earliest memories include putting on puppet shows in giant refrigerator boxes in our family’s basement in Wichita, Kansas. The basement was where the Lint Man lived. Also living with us in the house were Crab Man, Angry Robot Man, Alligator Man and Mr. Hand. All of these were characters my father came up with that he used when he wanted me and my older sister to do as we were told. Crab Man, Angry Robot Man and Alligator Man all followed the same basic principle. My father would don the character’s respective voice and then chase us to our rooms when it was time to go to bed, both screaming and laughing at the same time. Often, when we got to our room we would lock our door. When he convinced us to let him in, my father would tell us a bedtime story. It was always the same story. He would begin with his voice gentle. “Let me tell you the story”, then he would take on a deep and demonic tone as he flicked the light switch off “of the Bloody Eye!” My sister and I would scream.

     

    When my father would get ready to finish his bedtime routine he would say to us, “Goodnight, don’t let the spiders bite.” We would scream then he would reply, “Nah, I’m only kidding. There are no spiders, the rats ate them.” We would scream again. “Nah, I’m just kidding, the snakes ate them.” Then he would step out into the hall and close the door behind him, leaving my sister and me screaming giddily in the dark. We screamed mostly for fun and out of excitement because this happened nearly every night and we knew to expect it. Yet, my father still thinks I was being ridiculous when I went through a brief period in my childhood when I thought I heard voices inside the walls. I just think it’s a miracle I’m not an axe murderer.

    Emily Cascio

    Hernando County, Nature Coast Technical High School
  • Excerpt from the poem “The Journey”

     

    I am far greater than any dictionary can define

    Than just to simply confess

    That I am

    And will always be

    Me

     

    I proposed a theory,

    But even my own words

    I couldn’t believe in

    So I decided to explore

    Hoping my heart would find truth

    I traveled to the end of Earth,

    Fought against lions, tigers, and bears

    Swam the Pacific, and sailed the Atlantic

    Climbed to the peak of the Appalachian

    Starved in the depths of Somalia

    And prayed to the gods of Indonesia

    Seeking for an answer

    Yet, my core was left vacant

     

    Then near the conclusion of my excursion

    I drove beneath Earth’s surface

    To the valley of the mantle

    There lay broken pieces of glass,

    Tarnished with unspoken memories.

    Tovonnia Lewis

    Hillsborough County, Howard W. Blake High School
  • The Poem “Anatomy of a Thought”

     

    It begins in the frontal lobe,

    somewhere in the mass of arteries

    and blood vessels,

    it sparks blue electricity,

    propelled through the brain

    from neuron to neuron,

    an article seen on the

    yellowing edges of a newspaper,

    pictures processed like photographs

    in the occipital lobe.

    Another spark

    in the endless wiring,

    quick, electric,

    a small, familiar epiphany,

    met with brisk breath,

    widening of the eyes,

    impatient fingers

    hurrying across the keyboard,

    needing to hold on to the conception

    before it slips away,

    back into the teeming circuitry.

    Ellen Verney

    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Duval County

• 

  Kayla Marcus

  Hillsborough County, Robinson High School

• 

  Joseph Anarumo

  Palm Beach County, West Boca Raton Community High School
• 

  Nicholas Sacks

  Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Duval County
• 

  Michaela Vine

  Westshore Jr./Sr. High School, Brevard County

• • 

    Kelsey Bannon

    Northside Christian School, Pinellas County
  • 

    Aaron Dombey

    Miami-Dade County, Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School
  • 

    Queenie Edwards

    Hillsborough County, Walter L. Sickles High School
  • 

    Thomas Ingui

    Indian River Charter High School, Indian River County

• 

  Jonathan Ward

  Buchholz High School, Alachua County

• • 

    Ashley Bowersox

    Dr. Phillips High School, Orange County
  • 

    Ain Eccles

    Lake Brantley High School, Seminole County
  • 

    Cyrus Hodge

    Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Duval County
  • 

    Esme McFerrin

    Osceola County, Osceola County School for the Arts

• • 

    Alexa Mekita

    Atlantic Community High School, Palm Beach County
  • 

    Victoria Montes

    Miami-Dade County, New World School of the Arts
  • 

    Lian Plass

    Design and Architecture Senior High School, Miami-Dade County
  • 

    Isabella Rodriguez

    Coral Reef Senior High School, Miami-Dade County

• • 

    Megan Schmunk

    Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Palm Beach County
  • 

    Krystal Smith

    Lee County, Mariner High School
  • 

    Andrew Stearns

    Harrison School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Polk County
  • 

    Nina Vallad

    Bay County, Bay High School