Students win top poetry prizes

In the recent National Youth Poetry Contest, 14 of Saratoga’s own poets from the Creative Writing: Poetry class won top prizes in multiple categories. The poets won more prizes than any other single school in the nation, a great accomplishment for the poetry program.

The contest is sponsored by the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc., the oldest and largest poetry organization in California. Although the CFCP is a state-wide organization, the contest was held nationwide.

Seniors Sarah Tang, Raphael Kung, Steven McLellan, Connie Shang and Kara Wang and junior Flora Chang all won top prizes in the Senior Poem Category. Seniors Jason Huang and Sarah Tang placed first and second respectively in the Roscoe Fortson Memorial Award which focused on the topic “I Remember.”

The results came as a surprise for most of the poetry students.

“At first I thought it was only a state-wide thing, so when I won first place, I wasn’t too excited.” said Huang, “But when I found out it was against the whole nation, I was really proud of myself.”

Students first submitted their poems on Feb. 28, however, results were not announced until April 24. The competition was judged by the members of the CFCP organization.

“The poets work very hard throughout the year; they know to turn writing into art– thus the awards of which they are well deserving,” said poetry teacher Judith Sutton.