Elaine Loft, Staff Writer
This year the Derryfield community submitted 90 pieces to the Scholastic Writing Awards. 50 awards were distributed among 28 students, including nine Gold Keys, 21 Silver Keys, and 20 Honorable Mentions. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded in 1923. Notable alumni of the writing program include: Stephen King (1965), Sylvia Plath (1947) and Amanda Gorman (2015).
Nathaniel Barrett ‘24 received a Gold Key for his portfolio, “Mirrored Worlds.” Portfolios consist of “a series of six distinct works that demonstrate versatility as a writer, diversity in writing techniques and styles, and a developed, cohesive voice. The works can come from one category or any combination of multiple categories.”
Six students were awarded Gold Keys in the category of Personal Essay and Memoir, which is described as “non-fiction work based on opinion, experience, and/or emotion that explores a topic or event of importance to the author.” Sam Chappell ‘24 (“The Touch of Silver”); Briana Sanchez ‘25 (“Broken Promises: Questioning the Realism of the American Dream”); Eleanor Kerwin ‘24 (“Ragtime”); Rachael Irving ‘24 (“Braid or Bun?”); Lane Daniel ‘24 (“Linda”); and Katherine McGee ‘25 (“Don’t Cry Over Spilled Pepper”) were recognized for their essays. McGee also earned a Gold Key for a short story (“The Fruit of the Spirit is Love”), and a poem, “Chlorophyll Eyes.”
The last stanza of “Chlorophyll Eyes“ reads:
She catches the rays reflecting off my smile of enjoyment in my own absurdity
And I whisper my chosen reincarnate into her leaves
Too quiet for the retired ears of grampa Silverstein
She will not tell
She could not
She stands
So you have somewhere to lean
She exists
So you have air to breathe
She absorbs
So that you can be observed
That’s the way she chooses it
In every leaf and vein
In her chlorophyll eyes
She knows how to photosynthesize
