Sara is a student at Poolesville High School cultivating her creative writing, specifically poetry, through exposure to the worlds of social justice and public policy.  An active member of her school’s debate and mock trial teams, Sara published two articles for the non-partisan news outlet, MarylandMatters.org. She is also a remote intern for the non-profit youth advocacy group TurnUp since September 2020. In her own words, “As a creative writer, [Sara] explores the subtleties that arrest [her] attention, implicate [her] emotions, and ultimately, shape [her] perceptions of the world.” After graduating high school, Sara hopes to connect her interests of creative writing and informative non-fiction and continue her exploration of creative writing in college.

Writer’s Statement

It’s the little things—the brief glimmer of a memory, a breeze reminding me of some deeply known truth, or a glimpse of a feeling that’s impossible to capture with words—that inspire me to put pen to paper (or finger to notes app) and write. As a creative writer, I explore the subtleties that arrest my attention, implicate my emotions, and ultimately shape my perceptions of the world. When I write, I lend a voice to the restless feelings I have that ache and echo, adding contrast and color to my life. In the same vein, I hope that my writing will communicate feelings that are so often suppressed or stigmatized by society. The complex feelings of guilt and adoration I bear towards my family and my lingering feelings of “otherness” house themselves in my work as I explore the tensions and threads that have culminated in who I am today.

Rachel, a junior at Albert Einstein High School, dedicates her free time to activism and writing in hopes of de-normalizing rape culture and promoting an end to systemic sexual and domestic violence. She has been an invited speaker at events organized by the Adolescent Peer Support League, Break the Cycle, and the D.C. Attorney General’s Office, and is a regular speaker on panels about sexual harassment and assault, as well as the way in which D.C. Public School and Montgomery County Public School policies can improve the treatment of both victims and perpetrators. Rachel hopes to study English, English Education, or Journalism.

Amal Haddad is a haphazard poet, artist, and  wannabe novelist who hopes to one day finish writing her story set in the Upper Michigan Peninsula, a region she has an inexplicable fascination with and of which she has five maps on her wall, despite never having been there. Her favorite writers are Anne Carson and James Baldwin. Amal works at the Bethesda library and is currently a senior at Albert Einstein high school’s Visual Arts Center. For her art series about the AIDS epidemic and its ramifications today, Amal was named a 2018 YoungArts Silver Finalist and a semi-finalist for Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She was also a 2017 Fitzgerald Scholar, and received regional Silver Keys for Short Story and Portfolio from Scholastics. In the fall, she will attend Swarthmore College and plans to study English.

Asia Pumphrey is a senior at Gaithersburg High School who enjoys writing and photography. During her high school career Asia has participated in the  the Multicultural Club, Key Club, Stage Crew, Food for Thought Club, NAACP, and the Newspaper Club. Asia is currently an Editor of her the school newspaper and has had 5 of my poems published in an anthology called a celebration OF POETS from 2015 to 2017. Asia is greatly supported by her parents and friends, stating “they push me to strive for my goals and achieve above and beyond my expectations.”

Writer’s Statement

In my work emotions of fear, sadness, acceptance, and sometimes love are expressed by way of imagery and hyperbole. The majority of my poems are also free verse with unrhymed lines to convey a sense of confused or frenzied thinking because poetry is the only way I know how to feel and express my feelings in a healthy way. The art of writing is very cathartic for me and gives me a voice. That, being said, my poetry may blur boundaries between genres because of the fact that all of my work is the unfiltered me and I can not be defined as only one thing.

Emily Zhang is a senior at Richard Montgomery High School. She loves telling bits of stories through poetry, and hopes to one day work in arts advocacy where she can teach students the importance of creative expression. She is currently Editor in Chief of the The Moco Student, Montgomery County’s student newspaper, as well as News Editor of The Tide, Richard Montgomery’s High School newspaper. In addition, Emily founded Sidereal Journal, an online publication that is dedicated to showcasing the works of writers and artists who create with the purpose of shifting the perspective of the public. Emily has earned a Scholastic Art & Writing Award, and her work has been recognized by Feminist Studies, The Poetry Society of England, The Sierra Nevada Review, Princeton University, and National Poetry Quarterly, as well as many other publications.

Writer’s Statement

“Writing, originally, was a documentation of my life—I’ve kept journals since the fourth grade—but whenever I found myself uprooted into a new environment, I wrote to address this strange new sense of loneliness.Poetry is my connection of people and people, author and reader, ideas that never seemed to mesh well until they did. I love this width of possibility, this restlessness of words. I love that it inspires equal parts adventure and introspection and empathy. When China handed me a fistful of loneliness and mistranslation, I gave it line breaks on café napkins, candy wrappers, grocery store receipts. I wrote when the neighborhood bookstore stopped carrying English titles. I wrote when my grandpa passed away and left all his playing cards on the table and orange juice in the fridge.”

Logan Dreher is a senior at Blake High School. An active member of organizations like the National Honors Society, Black Student Union, and Knitting Club, she expresses her love for writing through her leadership roles as editor-in-chief of the nationally recognized school newspaper, ‘The Blake Beat,’ and as president of the Creative Writing Club. She has given back to her community by obtaining over 250 community service hours. In the past, Logan has been featured in the Bethesda Magazine, and was a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Literature Award for Excellence. She owes her success to her family, friends, and writing mentor Amy Branson.

Writer’s Statement

I don’t think I’ve ever considered why I was interested in writing before. It is something as intrinsically tied to my being as my hair or eye color. In that vein, there was never one moment I realized I wanted to write. The heavens never opened up, and God never strode out and declared, “You shall write.”

Most of my life seemed impermanent and abstract; two of my best friends moved away when I was a child; my father moved to California, and then to Florida, after my parents divorced; and I felt race-less, community-less as a white looking biracial girl in an African American household. Writing made my life feel concrete. If I could just capture a moment in words, it was real and it was permanent.

Yiyi “Jessica” Li immigrated to America from China at the age of nine and will graduate from Richard Montgomery High School in June of 2014. Her works have been featured on Teen-Ink, Stage-of-life, and the New York Times Education Blog. She has also been recognized in nation-wide contests including the River of Words International Poetry Contest, National Creative Communications Essay Contest, and the Scholastic Writing Awards, as well as in local competitions such as the Bethesda Magazine Essay Contest, MCCPTA Reflections Contest, and One World Education Reflections Program. Jessica will attend Princeton University in the fall of 2014 and hopes to become a news reporter/commentator.

Writer’s Statement

Illegal immigrant. Teenage mother. Housewife of a Wall Street billionaire. Do you think crime? Burden? Extravagance and perpetual festivity? After coming to America, my family moved from a grease-smelling garage-sized tenement sheltering fourteen people to a house of our own on a scenic street. The stereotypes I had been associated with in the eyes of my counterparts had changed, yet, there was always a monochromatic label that they slapped onto me. That’s what got me to pick up my pen. I write to amplify the non-mainstream voices, for I’ve witnessed the power of words to peacefully erase prejudices and open our eyes to what we once refused to see.