Future writers
This year’s Teen Writing Contest celebrated the creativity of local students in the area through the categories of poetry and short stories. Pictured front, from the left, Keaton Kargus, Isabel Garcia, Lauren Patterson, Safia Hafid and Adelle Johnson. Back, from the left, Riley James, Annaelle Bieman and Natalya Fewtrell. Absent from the photo, Kaedyn Boucher, Justus Croskery and Meadow Donnelly-Gilman. Glover photo

RUSSELL – From March 1 to April 15, students Grade 7 – 12 were able to get their creative juices flowing with the Russell Public Library’s annual Teen Writing Contest.

While last year’s contest was centred around poetry writing, this year, they decided to add a little more diversity by including a short story category.

“Students from Grade 7 to Grade 12 could submit an original piece of poetry or short story and we had local teachers and authors judge the entries,” said Isabelle Camiré, librarian at the Russell Public Library. “This is the first year we’ve included a short story category, we’ve gotten a good response of entries for the contest.”

After the winners were announced, they were invited to the Russell Public Library on Thurs., May 2 to present their work to their friends, family and the judges. Each of the winners were presented with prizes that were generously donated by the Friends of the Library.

Winners of the Teen Writing Contest were as follows: in the Poetry 7-9 Grade category, Lauren Patterson won first place, Justus Croskery won second place and Isabel Garcia won third place; in the Poetry 10-12 Grade category, Natalya Fewtrell won first place, Adelle Johnson won second place and Annabelle Bieman won third place; in the Short Story 7-9 Grade category, Riley James won first place, Keaton Kargus won second place and Kaedyn Boucher won third place and lastly, in the Short Story 10-12 Grade category, Safia Hafid won first place and Meadow Donnelly-Gilman won second place.

“This is the second year we’ve held this contest, we’re not sure if this is going to be an annual event but we’ll see,” said Camiré. “Maybe we’ll skip a year to let these guys move on and get a new crowd in, but we’re very happy with the this year’s turnout.”

To see all the finalists’ winning pieces, you can visit the Russell Public Library’s website here.