Poetry Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and National Writers Union Chapter 7

invite you to the

Fourteenth Annual High School Poetry Competition

Poetry Reading and Awards Ceremony

Festivities begin at 6:30 with music by the Soquel High School Jazz Band and art by local students on display.  The reading begins at 7:00 PM.

The Reading

All high school students in Santa Cruz County were eligible to enter the annual poetry competition.   This year 357 poems were submitted and read by our three judges: Neli Moody, Beth Pittenger and Robert Sward. The following cash prizes will be awarded:

First Prize: $100 cash
Second Prize: $50 cash
Third Prize: $25 cash

In addition, eight Honorable Mentions were named.  At the reading, an Anthology containing 53 poems selected by the judges will be given to each student whose poem appears in it, and will be available for purchase at $5.   All the students whose poems appear in the anthology are invited to read their selected poems.  All the anthology selections are listed below.  Admission is free.   For more information, call Len Anderson at 464-8983 or len@poetrysantacruz.org.

Poetry Santa Cruz congratulates not only the prize winners, honorable mentions and others included in the anthology, but all the students who wrote and submitted their poems, for entering into the process of engaging thought, feeling, language, image and sound in the making of poetry.  Learning is the big prize.

 
Poems Appearing in the 2007 Anthology:

“wanderlust” by Nika States, First Prize
“On the Seventh Day” by Olivia Murphy, Second Prize
“Candlelight” by Naomi Barshi, Third Prize

“Light” by Naomi Barshi, Honorable Mention
“My Brown Skin” by Elisabeth Deogracias, Honorable Mention
“What Is Scarlet?” by Teresa Koro, Honorable Mention
“A Step Back into the Future” by Julius Mills-Denti, Honorable Mention
“Jack’s” by Victor Minden, Honorable Mention
“My Jaw Trembles” by Marshall Rogers, Honorable Mention
“The Movement” by Devin Murphy, Honorable Mention
“Ms. Kait” by Dylan Vandenberg, Honorable Mention

“I Am, He Is” by Alex Alvarez
“January” by Naomi Barshi
“My Generation” by Audrie Biddiscombe
“Michael” by Adriana Canepa
“The Storm to Remember” by Matt Catalano
“My Inside Is a Stranger” and “A New Year’s Poem” by Aaron Colton
“America” by Paulina Davis
“Hidden Beach” and “Teresita Paraiso Deogracias” by Elisabeth Deogracias
“Theft” by Luis Garcia
“Friends, Doubts, Wind” by Griselda Gonzalez
“The Circus” and “Family of the Past and Present” by Sarah Kim Hansen
“Marnell Avenue” and “Senior Citizens” by Bonnie Horgos
“History Says” by Mat Jenkins
“Dreaming between Nothing” by Eileen Kiyome Kitayama
“Episodes” by Teresa Koro
“In the Silence” by Diana Magaña
“maybe next time” by David Maruska
“Poetry Reading” and “Turnpike” by Victor Minden
“What You Don’t Know” by Devin Murphy
“Hunting for Big Game” by Olivia Murphy
“Be You” by MelissaKaye Nakamura
“Rain” by Nick
“Snow Corns” by Jina Park
“Practice and Determination” and “Stuck” by Kate Reimer
“Pow-Wows” by Chelsea Riotutar
“That’s Why” by Marvin Rubio
“Poetry” by Nina Simkova
“Lola & Bataan” by Julianne Soria
“Daughters” by Zeneva Schindler
“the vanishing twin” by Nika States
“Ruins” by Jacklyn Turner
“No One Knows”by Uriel
“Dia de los Muertos” by Eliodoro Vallecillo
“First Presbyterian” by Dylan Vandenberg
“Growing Wings” by Christine Williams
“Haiku” by Bunrong Yi
 

This project is presented by Poetry Santa Cruz and supported by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and National Writers Union Local 7.

Poetry Santa Cruz receives funding from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County and Poets & Writers, Inc.  Poetry Santa Cruz is also sponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz, Capitola Book Café, Casablanca Inn, the National Writers Union Chapter 7, the Museum of Art & History, KUSP, the William James Association, Cabrillo College and The Attic.  Membership premiums have been donated by Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, the University of Pittsburgh Press, Robert Sward, Patricia Grube, Coffee House Press and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.