New York,
NY (November
21,
2006) --
Highlighting the talent of a cross-section of American teens, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers has released THE BEST TEEN WRITING OF 2006 (Scholastic; December 2006). The collection includes selections from young writers aged 12-18 from around the country who were honored for their writing at The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2006, a national program that offers early recognition of creative teenagers and scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors. The anthology showcases the passion that young writers across America have for the written word—and offers a promising outlook on the future of the written word.
Drawn from 404 nationally-recognized manuscripts, BEST TEEN WRITING features the work of 51 student award recipients in a wide array of genres, including: humor, personal essays, poetry, short stories and science fiction. The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the nonprofit organization that administers The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, will distribute 15,000 copies of the publication to underscore the importance of the arts in education and in the lives of American teens.
BEST TEEN WRITING includes essays from award-winning author and juror of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2006, Tonya Bolden, and Kent Williamson, the Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of English. The anthology was edited by 19-year-old Amanda Blue Gotera, a Writing Portfolio Gold Award recipient in The Scholastic Awards of 2005 and now a student at Grinnell College.
In her introductory essay, Gotera writes, “There is nothing like the heart’s sudden forward lurch as you turn a page or turn a phrase…it is the necessary magnetism of language, and it is something with which the incredibly talented writers of BEST TEEN WRITING are deeply familiar.” The young authors included in the collection were selected to represent the great diversity of the national award recipients and to accurately and to richly articulate the authentic voices, thoughts and opinions of American teenagers.
Since 1923, more than 13 million of America’s most talented junior high and high school students (grades 7-12) have participated in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and 2.5 million have been recognized and shared in more than $25 million in cash awards and college scholarships. Some notable past recipients include: Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Maynard, Philip Pearlstein, Joyce Carol Oates and Bernard Malamud. Today, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards continue to fulfill its mission of providing a creative platform of expression for millions of students across the country.
You may order your own copy of THE BEST TEEN WRITING at
www.artandwriting.org.
A complete listing of national award recipients and a broad selection of works from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards can be found at
www.artandwriting.org.
About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
M.R. Robinson, the founder of Scholastic Inc., established The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1923, and the Company continues to be the program’s largest corporate sponsor. The Alliance brings outstanding visual art and writing created by teenagers to a national audience by showcasing their remarkable work and encouraging their creative journey and career development. In addition to awarding scholarships to top portfolio award recipients, the Alliance collaborates with colleges across the country that make an additional $1.5 million in financial aid available to award recipients with exceptional promise.
The Awards program and the work of the Alliance are made possible through the lead support of Scholastic Inc. Generous leadership support is also provided by The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust. Presenting Sponsors are The New York Times Company, Accenture, Command Web Offset, The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, and joined by newest Presenting Sponsor, CDW-G.
For more information about how to get involved in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, visit the web site of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers at
www.artandwriting.org.
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THE BEST TEEN WRITING OF 2006
Edited by Amanda Blue Gotera; Introduction by Tonya Bolden
Scholastic
December 2006; 248 pp
Young Writers Anthologized in:
THE BEST TEEN WRITING OF 2006
Elizabeth Roberts, 15, Tucson, AZ
Parth Raval, 13, Loma Linda, CA
Rebecca Title, 15, Los Angeles, CA
William Alden, 17, Santa Monica, CA
Celia Cabodevilla, 16, Littleton, CO
Jessica Roth, Granby, CT
Patrick Howley, 16, West Hartford, CT
Alexandra Petri, 17, Washington, DC
Alexandra Watson, 16, Wilmington, DE
Andrei Stetsenko, 16, Clearwater, FL
Tingyu Liu, 17, Miami, FL
Stephanie Maestre, 17, Miami, FL
Barrett White, 13, Pensacola, FL
Anni Pullagura, 18, Decatur, GA
Kevin Hong, 12, Chicago, IL
Reese Hartmann, 16, Savanna, IL
Austen McBain, 14, Evansville, IN
Alyssa Songsiridej, 17, Des Moines, IA
Alexandra Mushegian, 16, Leawood, KS
Larson Gilmore, 18, Fort Mitchell, KY
Laura Himel, 18, Covington, LA
Zoe Mason, 14, Nobleboro, ME
Clio Chimento, 17, Rockville, MD
Helen Vradelis, 16, Hingham, MA
Sharon Wang, 16, Oakland Township, MI
Ashish Premkumar, 17, Columbia, MO
Jacob McNulty, 16, Short Hills, NJ
Avery Chase, 14, Bedford, NY
Janine Simon, 17, Brooklyn, NY
Dylan Suher, 17, Brooklyn, NY
Tara Burton, 15, New York, NY
Clio Seraphim, 15, New York, NY
Alexander Rosenberg, 16, Scarsdale, NY
Omar Diab, 13, Westlake, OH
Denise Rickman, 16, Apex, NC
Katlin Barnes, 18, Charlotte, NC
Bridget Brewer, 16, Portland, OR
Anthony Francavilla, 17, Carlisle, PA
Amanda Kennedy, 15, Pequea, PA
Justin Beltz, 17, Bluffton, SC
Jessica Atkinson, 18, Charleston, SC
Temnete Sebhatu, 16, Greenville, SC
Kemper Wray, 17, Rock Hill, SC
Mary Murphy, 15, Simpsonville, SC
Frances Wright, 17, Nashville, TN
Amrapali Maitra, 16, Houston, TX
Joey Dominguez, 12, Spring, TX
Calvin Brown, 17, Mechanicsville, VA
Ryan Fauber, 13, Richmond, VA
Anne Walla, 16, Vancouver, WA
Jacob Stiemann, 13, Siren, WI