Winners in the 2022 Literary Achievement Awards listed and prizes awarded

The 36th annual Literary Achievement Awards of the Wells-Ogunquit CSD wrapped up deliberations earlier this spring and released the names of the winners and awarded prizes to them.

This year, Andrew Mott received First Place with a prize of $500 in the Grade 12 category for a work of fiction titled, “The Woman from the 85th Story,” a day-in-the-life look at a busy city dweller who, as Mott describes, “finds herself losing her identity; first metaphorically, then literally” thanks to the city’s and her own daily machinations. Mott described the short story as “full of imagery and little metaphors.”

“It's so exciting to continually receive writing with such quality,” noted Pam Lear in an email, one of the three organizers of this and last year’s contest. “We can see the passion from these students in their writing which makes this always fun.”

This year, 192 kindergarten through twelfth grade students entered the contest with 66 of them placing. The judging was a two-tiered process involving numerous Wells-Ogunquit CSD staff and others from the community. Students entered various forms of creative writing including fiction and non-fiction.

Alison Clark, another organizer wrote, “It has been a joy to organize this writing contest for the district again. We love celebrating the outstanding writing that the students in our district share with us, and we are so thankful to have such wonderful volunteers help us recognize our talented students.”

Others who placed first in their respective grade level categories included Arianna Martinelli (Kindergarten), Vivienne LaPlante (Grade 1), Bradley Martin (Grade 2), Mary Abbott (Grade 3), Elsa Lawson (Grade 4), Robert Roche (Grade 5), Taylor VonSteenburg (Grade 6), London Chadwick (Grade 7), Ainslie Donovan (Grade 8), Elizabeth Nichols (Grade 9), Samuel Coleman (Grade 10), and Summer Sullivan (Grade 11).

The WOCSD Literary Achievement Awards program was established in 1986 and has had numerous sponsors over the years. As with last year, the sponsors included the Wells-Ogunquit CSD, the Rotary Club of Wells, and Las Olas Taqueria in Wells.

With the exception of Grade 12, the top winners at each grade level receive $100. Second-place recipients receive $50 and third-place recipients receive $25. This year honorable mentions received $15 dollar gift certificates to Las Olas Taqueria. All the names of the 66 winners are listed and can be found at: https://www.k12wocsd.net/community/literary-awards.