On the third floor of the Inlustrate Orbem Building yesterday morning, a darkened classroom was converted into a literary coffeehouse for the duration of Activity Period. Between doughnuts at the back of the room and a pool of light in the front, there were two dozen Upper School students who shared their writing with each other. One student after another went to the front of the room to read their words, including poems inspired by Walt Whitman, by adversity, and by the search for alien life. 

Richard Harris, English teacher and advisor of the Creative Writing Club, said that the event, dubbed the Starry Night Open-Mic Reading, was inspired by the students who were recently honored for their work by the Scholastic Writing Awards — but that it was emphatically open to all. “It’s the word bringing people together,” he said.

The Scholastic Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running writing competition for teens, has existed since 1923. In that time, the program has recognized the precocious talent of writers including Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Nikki Giovanni, and Stephen King. This year, dozens of Latin students were honored. They were competing in Scholastic’s Mid-Carolina region, which encompasses 27 different counties in both North Carolina and South Carolina.

Receiving Gold Keys (and thereby becoming eligible for National Medals, determined later this spring) were Connor Cruz ’26, Aaron Dunnigan ’26, Elena Lapuente ’26, Tyler McAndrews ’25, Chloe Oh ’29, Athena Woodward ’25, and Lynn Zhao ’26.

Honored with Silver Keys (in some cases, multiple Silver Keys for different pieces of writing) were Lewawit Alemu ’26, Abbie Burns ’26, Ramona Cigler ’26, Max Colaco ’26, Connor Cruz, Benjamin Goldman ’26, Syan Gulati ’25, Sia Gullapalli ’27 (twice), Shivani Kaw ’27, Chloe Oh, Kenny Ogbata ’25, Margaret Piasecki ’27, Jackie Rao ’26, Athena Woodward (twice), Kathryn Wu ’27, Angelina Yang ’26, Isabel Yang ’26, Claire Zhang ’26, and Lynn Zhao (twice).

And Latin’s students receiving Regional Honorable Mentions comprised Jack Benonis ’28, Lilly Berkovich ’27 (twice), Natalie Berman ’26, Hannah Blackhall ’26, Luca Bravo ’26, Jenna Chebaro ’27, Ramona Cigler, Carson Clutter ’25, Samora Elam ’26, Grace Finn ’25 (twice), Benjamin Goldman, Evelyn Haggstrom ’26 (twice), Hannah Hurden ’25, Jackie Rao (twice), Florence Roper ’26, David Vaughn ’26, Marisol Wickham ’26, Athena Woodward, Kate Wagner ’26, Kathryn Wu (twice), and Logan Yee ’25 (twice).