Danbury High School senior Anna Strosser, who describes poetry as her way of seeing the world, earned a silver medal for her poem “Nose Dive.” The award was from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, which received more than 330,000 submissions from students across the country in 29 categories.
Anna will receive the award at a ceremony held at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in June.
“I’m happy that any of my poems were selected,” Anna said. “This one is imagery heavy. I’m usually more direct. Imagery takes more thought. I’m proud of this one and happy they were able to understand it.”
Each year the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are presented to students in grades 7 through 12 from across the country. This year 431 of 1,920 writing submissions were awarded gold and silver keys and honorable mentions. Anna’s poem earned a gold key before moving on to the national competition. Scholastic Art and Writing Awards was founded in 1923 and has recognized younger writers including Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote and Joyce Carol Oates.
Last year, Anna won first place in a poetry contest held by the Danbury Cultural Commission. She has also had work published in “Teen Ink” magazine and is co-editor of “The Nutmegger,” the DHS literary magazine.
Anna, who plans to attend college next fall to study economics with a minor in creative writing, has been writing poetry since eighth grade. Once a week, she travels to Westchester to Writopia Lab, a writing program that sponsors, in part, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
She also received a gold key for her poem, “My Days With You and Crystal Voodoo.”
In “Nose Dive,” the speaker realizes that her partner is using her to escape reality, and she needs to move on. Anna said she gets her inspiration from situations, and she reads a lot. Her poems are usually derived from her own experiences.
“It’s all really personal,” she said. Because poetry uses precise, condensed language, Anna said she has learned how to choose words carefully. “It’s a thought process. It’s so engrained that it’s a matter of thinking.”
#Danbury Board of Education#