NJCTE:
The New Jersey
Council of Teachers of English
GENRE WINNERS FOR 2012
POETRY CATEGORY
Gold Medal - Aladdin's Curse - Flannery James, Newark Academy
Fairy tales are supposed to teach children about reality in a way that they can understand. Yet, life often brings the most unexpected reverses. This poem metaphorically does the same.
Silver Medal - My Mother Speaks - Shannon Stocks, Livingston High School
The author enters her mother's world, observing a daughter's growing independence with a poignant mixture of grief and resignation. Imagery and word choice do not miss a measure of this painful growth.
Silver Medal - Gulp - Lida Weinstock, Northern Highlands Regional HS
Details selected with exquisite care and arranged the way an anniversary dinner's courses would be to build to the ultimate effect: a living portrait of a woman and her family.
Bronze Medal - Sink - Lucas Cuatrecasas, Morris Knolls High School
The author stretches language to capture the many dimensions of a city at night: neon-lit with pulsating life, darkened by futility and despair, a place where beauty can still surprise us.
Bronze Medal - This One Was Stuck to My Chair - Dana Lagomarsino, Northern Highlands Reg' l HS
The many sources of poetry inspire this author to present a hidden, fantastical world where ideas gather and whisper from every corner and shrink from intimidating reality.