NEWS RELEASE
Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation announces winners of Covid 19 Writing Contests. A Youth Writing Competition K-12, all-genre, teacher-curated drawing winners are:
My Quarantine Journey 2020 IRC 6-12 Drawing Winners
Abigail Sylvia St. Ed’s 8th grade
Reese Dion Storm Grove 6th grade
Sean Monrreal Master’s Academy 7th grade
Kent Bove VBHS 12 grade
Ellie Shrock St. Ed’s 10th grade
Anajaleahmae SRHS 12th grade
Leviste
There were 52 outstanding, publishable essays and poems from 151 entries. Each winner named above was awarded $25 gift certificate.
The winner of the Indian River County Poetry Competition, juried and read blindly by committee led by IRC Poet Laureate Sean Sexton, are:
1st Place – $500
- “Monarchs” by Mark Hinkley
2nd Place – $200
- “A Time Like This” by Pat Draper
Runners Up – $150
- “Waiting for the Coronavirus Wave” by David Kimball
- “ In the Valley of April” by C.M. Clark
- “COVID Calendar” by Jennifer Hawthorne
To be published online
- “Promenade Right” by Pamela Alderman
- “jesus melt me down” by Thomas W. Keogh
- “Laura Reichenthal Renounces Several Things While In The Meat Department (A Modernist Goes to Publix)” by Nick Thomas
- Untitled by Bonnie MacDougall
- “The Yin and Yang of Corona” by Jeanne Selander Miller:
- “COVID Moments” by Johanna Jones
- Untitled by Cynthia M. Hurst
- “haiku” by John Lunar Richey
- “A Bonfire for All Mankind” by April Cole
Details about our winners are available at www.lrjf.org.
It has long been the mission of LRJF to bring people together through writing and honoring the past and inspiring the future through the written word for all ages in our community. That mission is more relevant today than ever before. As people long for connection and start to realize how much of their daily experience is created through community, LRJF wants to provide space for exactly that.
Writing is an important way for people to communicate emotion. It allows for empathy, compassion and growth. At times like this when myriad forms of grief sit at the surface, grief for loss of stability, relationships, touch and so much more, writing connects people. Our goal at LRJF is to facilitate that connection. Whether through our Teen and Adult Writers Workshops, our Poetry and Barbeque, our gallery -salons, our special collaborations with the Community Church or whether it is sharing the past of our community by inviting people into Laura’s historic home, LRJF brings people together.
During this unprecedented time in our community’s history, LRJF was thrilled to encourage “expression of the written word” to document our county’s pandemic experience.
LRJF Writing Center at 1914 14th Avenue provides a gathering place for writers by offering teen and adult writers workshops, programs like Teens Listen, ongoing weekly writers groups and community wide events such as an annual Poetry BBQ and monthly “Celebrate a Local Author” during Friday Art Stroll.
Visit www.lauraridingjackson.org or call 772.569.6718
Indian River Guardian 