Thirteen Honored For Picturing America Submissions
The students had to create a piece of writing inspired by a classic American picture.
West Roxbury, Mass. — Thirteen Catholic Memorial students received high praise for their literary work during the March 9 awards ceremony for the 11th annual Picturing America Writing Contest.
The annual contest challenges students to use classic American pictures as inspiration for creating a piece of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. This year’s contest saw submissions from 200 students and for the first time had a theme - representations of disabilities.
Many of the students used Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” as their inspiration. The painting, Wyeth’s neighbor, who chose to crawl rather than use a wheelchair, depicts a woman lying in a grass field, facing a distant house. Others were inspired by Keith Haring’s digital logo for the Best Buddies organization which shows two figures embracing and Judith Scott’s “Bound and Unbound,” a multimedia sculpture of unusual objects bound together with yarn.
“With these pieces of art as their inspiration, every student here today wrote an original, creative, well-organized text that deserves recognition. They brought the art to life in new and exciting ways,” English teacher Caitlin Corsano said at the awards ceremony.
The panel of judges consisted of New York Times bestselling author William Martin ‘68 for fiction, CM science teacher and passionate storyteller Dr. Peter Rice for nonfiction and historically researched essay category, and award-winning author Lisa Rogers for the poetry.
“I’ve been doing this for 11 years, judging the writing. This was pretty much the best writing group of them all. Every one of these stories had something to recommend and something that reflects some aspect of the importance of storytelling,” Martin said.
The first-place winner in each category received the May Pon Excellence in Writing Prize, supported by Jack Barry '61.
Check below to see the winners and to hear the authors read an excerpt from their award-winning work:
Fiction
- First Place: Alexander Kryukov, “Untitled”
- Second Place: Dom Olohan, “Christina’s World”
- Third Place: Michael Clinton, “Second Chance”
- High School Honorable Mention: Garret Smith, “Pink Dress”
- Middle School Honorable Mention: Donovan O’Connor, “Christina’s World”
Nonfiction and Historical Research
- First Place: Ciaran Flanagan, “Grace’s World”
- Second Place: Aidan Dever, “Best Buddies”
- Third Place: Charlie Huff, “Working with a Disability”
- Honorable Mention: Adrian Daigle, “The Creative Mind of Judith Scott”
Poetry
- First Place: Alexander Pappas, “Untitled”
- Second Place: Liam Romano, “The Runaway” (Coming Soon)
- Third Place: Brendan McKinney, “My Turn to Judge”
- Honorable Mention: William Masferrer, “Soft and Low”
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CM prepares students for the rigors of college and beyond. While here, boys embark on service-learning opportunities, leadership development, and character formation programs inspiring them to become confident, courageous young men motivated to do good in the world.
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Catholic Memorial
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Catholic Memorial, the Christian Brothers School of Boston, prepares boys for college, manhood and a world full of unknown challenges, ambiguity and complex problems and the importance of relationships.
