By Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
This spring, the Walpole Cultural Council held their second annual, town-wide writing contest, Walpole Writes. The contest was open to all residents of Walpole, elementary school students through adults, and to nonresident students at Walpole schools.
Entries were due by April 26, and winners in elementary school, middle school, high school, and adult categories for both short stories and poetry were announced in May. At the Walpole Public Library, on Thursday, June 22, the winners were publicly recognized.
The audience cheered each of the winners, as they walked to the front of the room to receive their certificates. Then the first-place winners of each category read their entries aloud with confidence and clarity.
The Town of Walpole can be proud of the writing talent among its people! Here are the winners:
Elementary School: Poem
First Place: Madeleine Rubeor, “Pencil”
Second Place (Tie): Katherine Hart, “Lockdown”
Sahana Pande, “Spring: An Acrostic Poem”
Elementary School: Short Story
First Place: Grady Kurker, “The Stitch Maker”
Second Place (Tie): Bryce Mackey, “The Book About the Week”
Viraj Singh, “The Missing Things”
Middle School: Short Story
First Place: Liam Walsh, “It Was Our Time”
Second Place: Madeleine Smith, “Blend”
Third Place: Leyla Antonetti, “Jake and the Loch Ness Monster”
High School: Poem
First Place: Sakeena Abbasi, “Lifeline”
Second Place: Nirjara Akkole, “Restless Hands”
Third Place: Jason Hee, “To My Grandmother”
High School: Short Story
First Place: Maria Alejandra Quiñones Peralta, “My Hair Identity”
Adult: Poem
First Place: Kathleen Lutz, “The Willow”
Second Place: Cheryl Campbell, “A Spiritual Touch by an Angelic Child”
Third Place: Lilian Nanyonga, “We Are One!”
Adult: Short Story
First Place: Michele Morisi, “Isn’t It Awful”
Second Place (Tie): Corwin Hee, “Double Life Lessons”
Shaunna Miller, “The Adventurous Sagittarius”
The following 1st place winners read their work on June 22 at the Walpole Public Library.
Elementary School Poem
First Place: Madeleine Rubeor, “Pencil”
Elementary School Short Story
First Place: Grady Kurker, “The Stitch Maker”
Middle School Short Story
First Place: Liam Walsh, “It Was Our Time”;
High School Short Story
First Place: Maria Alejandra Quiñones Peralta, “My Hair Identity”
Adult Short Story
First Place: Michele Morisi, “Isn’t It Awful”
