The Southwest Prairie Conference (SPC) Literary Festival is an annual writing competition for all SPC schools where writing is judged by professional writers and performers. The Lit Festival was held virtually this year, organized by West Aurora High School, and featured keynote speaker and prolific YA author, Brandy Colbert, author of “The Voting Booth”. During the conference, students engaged in breakout workshops with notable authors, journalists and publishers prior to attending awards.
Students submitted writing in the following categories: poetry, short fiction, personal narrative, personal essay, critical essay, dramatic script and descriptive sketch. The OHS Panther Writers, sponsored by OHS English teacher Erin Holtz, and the OE Poetic Justice Writers, co-sponsored by Tim Ochoa and Patrick Sweeney, combined brought home 51% of the awards presented at the SPC Lit Festival. The OE Poetic Justice Writers won the top “Critic’s Choice” award in three categories and the OHS Panther Writers won the top award in two of the seven categories.
SPC Literary Festival winners from both Oswego High and Oswego East High Schools include:
Critic’s Choice (Top Award)
Alyssa Krake (OH) – Personal Narrative, “Growing up”
Mia Woltman (OH) – Short Fiction, “Two Coffees, Please”
Becca Anderson (OE) – Poetry, “Kitchen: The Household War Room”
Dimitri Huitron (OE) – Personal Essay, “The Yellow House”
Sydney Biala (OE) – Dramatic Scene, “Big Red Bus”
First Place
Malika Ouro-Sama (OE) – Poetry, “Why You Sound Like That”
Abigail Burns (OE) – Descriptive Sketch, “Alien Grandma”
Alex Prince (OE) – Dramatic Scene, “Spill the Beans”
Second Place
Cole Boni Granahan (OH) – Poetry, “Room 263”
Alyssa Krake (OH) – Poetry, “I am enough”
Emily Thomas (OH) – Personal Narrative, “Staring at the Milky Way”
Claire Gates (OE) – Descriptive Sketch, “A Chicago Christmas”
Rhiannon Rannochio – Dramatic Scene, “My Yellow”
Third Place
Ainsley Ratledge (OE) – Dramatic Scene, “New Year, New Me”
Honorable Mention
Stephanie Alcala (OH) – Personal Essay, “How does addiction affect parents and their children?”
Giselle Barrios (OH) – Short Fiction, “Alive”
Anna Buan (OH) – Critical Essay, “Don’t Kill the Spider: An Exercise in Open-Mindedness”
Abby Jobgen (OH) – Descriptive Sketches, “When Fog Settles” and “The Wildlands”
Mia Woltman (OH) – Critical Essay,”Enjoy the Little Things in Life: An Evaluation of Life’s Moments”
Cian Perez (OE) – Poetry, “In Response to Calling My Name ‘Prefered’”
Teja Davis (OE) – Poetry, “428 Weston Ave”
Becca Anderson (OE) – Poetry, “Girls Should Be”
Ally Wolf (OE) – Poetry, “How to be Gay”
Reann Salazare (OE) – Personal Essay, “Snapshot: My Life in Food”
Grace Thompson (OE) – Personal Essay, “Forever Young, Forever Ours”
Becca Anderson (OE) – Dramatic Scene, “A Young Wife’s Tale”
SD 308 is proud of all of the talented student writers from both OH and OE and look forward to their continued successful writing accomplishments.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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