Read excerpts from the winning pieces here.
For the 20th straight year, Allegan High School celebrated student writing and creativity with the Tiger Tales Literary Competition award ceremony May 16.
Winners from the event received both an award and cash. First-place winners received $100, while those in second received $50 and third $25.
This year’s event saw 176 pieces of writing entered by 136 students.
“It was nice that a real cross section of kids won,” said Jane Kiel an English teacher and one of the event’s organizers. “Sometimes it seems like the kids in the more advance classes win a lot of it.”
Sophomore Hannah Joynes won in two categories this year, both for her Cover Art and Short Story. Her short story “Captured” depicts a young girl named Adina and her capture by the Nazis.
Part of it reads, “My father smiled, and with that we dug into our meal. The room filled with laughter and talking between my family members. Mealtime was always treasured in my family because it was perhaps the only time we were all together at once. It was our chance to talk to each other without interruption of work. In the middle of the meal we heard a faint siren. It wasn’t like anything I had ever heard in my life. The siren began to get louder. The whole room went silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop.”
The Editorial category is in its second year of being part of the event. This is a category that allows students to share their opinions while backing them up with facts and quotations.
“The editorial category was new last year and a little rocky; this year the entries are really solid,” Kiel said.
The winner of that category was senior Gabriel Butzke, whose piece was titled, “Hate Speech is Free Speech.” Butzke argued no one should be kept from speaking their opinions, no matter what those opinions are.
“I thought my editorial was well written, but I wasn’t sure they would like it on a personal level,” Butzke said. “It was pretty abrasive; even the title itself is provocative.”
Quoting Voltaire’s “Sir, I detest what you write, however, I would give my life that you may continue writing,” Butzke writes, “This should be taken literally, in all instances. It doesn’t matter what is said. Harmful, hateful, racist ideas, they need to be said. In a free society, people have every right to be racist, bigoted, and xenophobic. No one gets to judge the value of some speech over others; everyone’s speech should be equally free, regardless of who is speaking or what is said.”
Butzke will be attending Central Michigan University next year to study law and economics.
The winner of the Poetry section was Heaven Watson, whose poem was titled “The Feelings of a Father.” The piece describes a father looking at his newly born daughter after the passing of the mother.
In part, it reads, “This little girl’s voice coos, like her mother / The color of her eyes, she and I share / The waves of pain hit, here comes another / I fall to my knees and say a prayer / To the mother who’ll never see her grow.”
Ben Dosso won the Personal Narrative award for his piece “Adele.” The story is about Ben’s relationship with a girl named Adele and the bond they shared.
Dosso grew up speaking French in the African country of Ivory Coast. He came to America as a refugee and recently learned English, making it his sixth language. Dosso says his entry is from a longer 63-page book he worked on.
“Those whom (sic) did not understand the rope that bound Adele and I together used to believe we were boyfriend and girlfriend. However, they didn’t know that we had not shared a kiss of love. Rather, we would comfort each other in our everyday suffering, and the childhood we lost when we were raped by the street. We had become more than just friends. We were as a gift from heaven for each other. We had become like twins, who had never sucked the same maternal breast. It was an extraordinary friendship in the misery. I will never regret meeting her.”
The final award was for a new category called Freshman Breakout. This highlights the best piece submitted by a freshman who did not win in another category. The winner for this year was Alexandria Sinkler, who titled her short story entry “Prideful Love.” The story depicts a young boy struggling to find his true self with the help of his boyfriend.
A section of it reads, “Tae swiveled Yeonseok around by his shoulders, and, doing his best to look into his partner’s red-rimmed eyes, chose his next words carefully. ‘Yeonseok, you are as much a boy as anyone who was born one. I don’t care what you look like on the outside, it’s what you believe yourself to be that is the real you. I love you, and I will be here for you through all of your suffering.’ He spoke gently, in that way he knew his boyfriend craved.”
All award winners will have their pieces featured in an anthology that can be obtained at the school.
Contact Nicklas Grifhorst at (269) 673-5534.
Tiger Tales awards 2017-2018:
Editorial
1st: “Hate Speech is Free Speech,” Gabriel Butzke
2nd: “Blocked Content,” Jessica Cobos
3rd: “The Boot,” Alexander Letts
Honorable mention: “The Hidden Truth,” Sander Huff
Poetry
1st: “The Feelings of a Father,” Heaven Watson
2nd: “12,” Ben Dosso
3rd: “The Faded Blanket,” Eliza Spreitzer
Honorable mentions:
• “Untitled (You call out the girls),” Eliza Spreitzer
• “I am From,” David Roark
• “Protons + Neutrons = Massive Love,” Tara Kizer
• “About My Life,” Molly Stanloski
• “10th,” Annabelle Dillon
Freshman breakout (a short story)
“Prideful Love,” Alexandria Sinkler
Personal Narrative
1st: “Adele,” Ben Dosso
2nd: “Quiet Ones,” Taylor Long
3rd: “The Friendly Little Spider,” Ariana White
Honorable mention: “The Night I Learned to Live,” Delanie Nahikian
Short Story
1st: “Captured,” Hannah Joynes
2nd: “Unbound and Burnt Out,” Ashley Nichols
3rd: “The Way it is,” Elaina Whittemore
Honorable mentions:
• “Reflections,” Cassandra Kincaid
•“Not a Hallmark Tale,” Madison Layton
Cover design
1st: “Tiger on grey,” Hannah Joynes
2nd: “Tiger on teal,” Cassandra Kincaid
3rd: “Tiger on orange,” Cassandra Kincaid
4th: “Tiger eye,” Hannah Joynes
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