Right here, write now.
Winners Announced for the 2023 High School Writers Competition
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Write On The River and NCW Libraries are happy to announce and congratulate the winners of the annual Chelsea Cain High School Writers Competition. $200 in cash prizes will be distributed among these three students for their excellence in original fiction writing. They will be special guest readers at Write On The River’s next “Four Minutes of Fame” open mic.
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First Place
Jadyn Matson, a homeschooled sophomore from Chelan, for “Over the Edge of the World”
Published authors like her favorites, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, have been Jadyn’s best writing teachers, she said; she’s a devoted reader and gains her inspiration from books. She’s written short stories, but her biggest project is writing her own fantasy novel, which is now half-finished. Her primary reader-responder is her cousin, who’s always given good feedback on her
writing.
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Read "Over the Edge of the World' by Jadyn Matson
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Honorable Mention
Jada Wood, a freshman at Cashmere High School, for “Helios”
“My pursuit of fiction started when other books no longer satisfied me,” said Jada Wood. “I asked myself, why not write my own stories?” She is excited to see what writing she’ll do in the future. In the meantime, she reads, writes, makes art and bakes “cookies that never quite come out right.” She credits this writing award to the encouragement of her English teacher, Karen
Gemeinhart.
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Honorable Mention
Isabel Menna, a junior at Cascade High School, for “Lost Princess Found: A Story of Resurrection”
Isabel (Izzy) is looking forward to being next year's co-editor-in-chief of her school's Publications Group and already has a good start on a professional career. She’s won national prizes for her journalism and writes magazine articles, and you may have seen her work locally in The Leavenworth Echo, The Wenatchee World, and Wenatchee Outdoors.
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Read "Lost Princess Found: A Story of Resurrection" by Isabel Menna
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About the contest
Eligible students were from grades 9-12, including those privately or home-schooled and in Running Start, in the NCW Libraries’ service area. The submitting writers attend schools throughout Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant and Ferry counties.
New York Times best-selling author Chelsea Cain, who visited Wenatchee as a 2011 Write On The River Conference keynote speaker, initiated and continues to sponsor the annual competition.
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