Poetry Contest Winners

Here are the results of our annual Poetry Contest!  

This year’s participation was considerably higher than last year’s — three times as much to be exact with nearly 300 digital and quite a number of handwritten entries to judge.  It seems staying indoors for a year influenced everyone’s creative juices positively because this year’s collection of poems showed incredible thought and diversity— and hope.

Judges did their decision making from the comforts of their homes, and the awards presentation will be a virtual event televised on YouTube by Pennsauken TV. Look for it.

Our winners run the gamut from 1^st grade through 12^th and into adulthood, and schools represented include Carson, Fine, Franklin, Pennsauken Intermediate, Pfifer Middle and PHS. Topics covered animals – “Gorillas,” “I am a Dolphin,” “Seagulls,” “and “T-Rex,” — and boasted such intriguing titles as “The Mask of Masculinity,” “Leaving Me in Shambles,” “The Wicks-End,” “Sibling Blues,” “Letter to my Only Friends,” “A Sign of Hope” and “Bloom,” among others.  

Now on to our winners. These 1^st graders took first place, second place and honorable mention in the Serious category Primary Level respectively: Vivaan Dhanotiya, Francella Sang Espinales, and Matthew Taeras and in the Creative category, Jayden Ngo, Hoang Nguyen and Laila Lewis.

In the Elementary 2 & 3 Level, 1^st and 2^nd prizes in the Serious category are Jeislyn Javier Cespedes and Devanshi Mukherjee. The winner in the Amusing category is Bianca Lusardi.    

In the Elementary 4 & 5 Level, Serious category, we congratulate Elizabeth Ngeth, Anthony Jose Nunez and Debbie Suleiman-Arab for their first, second and honorable mention prizes. In the Amusing category on the same level are first and second prize winners Aasir Redd and Jada Rubio.  

Elementary 6-8 Level, first and second prizes in the Serious category go to Esther Suleiman-Arab and Merari Vega respectively and in the Amusing category, first prize went to Michael Padilla and second prize to Fatina Losier.

High School winners, Noah Talley and Marquai Chestnut took first and second prizes respectively, and our adult level entry first prize winner is Reed Starwind. 

Look for the pictures of each winner along with their winning poems on the Friends of the Library Facebook page! (https://www.facebook.com/friendsofthepennsaukenlibrary)