afs upfront Prize Winning Poets AFS poets again impressed judges in high school poetry contests this year. Three of the six winners of last fall’s DeSales University Poetry Festival Contest were students from our Upper School. Senior Terez Sanogo was named overall winner for her poem “Floating,” a riff on Jim Harrison, an honor that carries with it a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to DeSales. Junior Cassie Fiorino and senior Emma Moreno also received Honorable Mention. Junior Mini Racker, whose poem was also praised, joined the other three for the prize ceremony at DeSales on October 26, where Terez read her poem and the group participated in poetry workshops with other high schoolers and published poets. Terez, who has been at AFS since 7th grade says that having Mary Lynn as a teacher
last year inspired her fledgling love of poetry. “The fact that she’s a poet herself definitely helps when it comes to guiding us in our poetry.”
exploring various facets of writing and poetry of various genres at once and it gives me a different lens through which to look at literature.”
In January, junior Reggie Kramer won the 2013 Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key award for poetry. For his poem, “Those Left Behind, 22 Young Men, The Survivor,” Reggie created the historical persona of a soldier and imagined the truths of that character’s wounded psyche. “I’m a history buff,” says Reggie, “and I like to explore history through various mediums.”
Senior Sophia Got won the Gold Key award in the Personal Essay/Memoir category for her personal essay “The Sherlock Holmes Way of Life,” in which she shared some of the most important lessons life has taught her.
Reggie also credits Mary Lynn with awakening his interest in poetry and helping to refine his talent. “She’s a great teacher,” he says. “We often do poetry warm-ups. Instead of going straight into the text. We’re
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AFS UPFRONT
“They both used the power of language and storytelling to share the powerful human emotions that accompany the greatest losses,” says Mary Lynn “It’s not easy to shape a sequence poem or a memoir piece, but they brought all their writing skills to bear and created really evocative pieces. Their English teachers are quite proud of them!”