Richard Montgomery High School’s Chelsea Zhu Wins Top Prize in GBF High School Poetry Contest
GAITHERSBURG, MD – May 20, 2024 – Chelsea Zhu, a sophomore at Richard Montgomery High School and an Rockville, Md., resident, was awarded first prize in the 2024 Gaithersburg Book Festival poetry contest for high school students for her poem “Voyage to the Exoplanet.”
Second prize went to Oakton, Va., resident Isabela Revis, a sophomore at Oakton High School, for “The Bloody Lane.” Ayomi Mukerjee, a Gaithersburg, Md., resident and freshman at Thomas Wootton High School, received third prize for “My hair’s twists and tangles.” Ariana Miranda, a senior at Wheaton High School and resident of Silver Spring, Md., won the fan favorite contest with her poem, “Color Coded.”
First-, second- and third-place winners were awarded $250, $100 and $50, respectively. The fan favorite winner received $25.
Contest judge Clint Smith, a local poet and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction for his book “How the Word is Passed,” announced the top three winners at the Festival on May 18.
“These poems demonstrate a remarkable command of the craft and show extraordinary creativity,” Smith said of the winning poems. “I am in awe of these young poets. Their work took my breath away.”
To be eligible for the poetry contest, students had to be enrolled in grades 9-12 at a public or private school, or be in a homeschool program, for the 2023-24 school year. Additionally, entrants had to reside in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia.
About the Gaithersburg Book Festival
The Gaithersburg Book Festival is an annual all-day celebration of books, writers and literary excellence. One of the premier literary events in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, the 2024 Festival took place Saturday, May 18, at Bohrer Park at Summit Hall Farm (506 S. Frederick Ave.) in Gaithersburg, Md. The 2025 Gaithersburg Book Festival will take place Saturday, May 17, 2025. The Gaithersburg Book Festival also hosts author events in Montgomery County, Md., throughout the year to encourage continued appreciation for all things literary. The Gaithersburg Book Festival is sponsored in part by its official bookseller, Politics & Prose, and title sponsor, The Carnegie at Washingtonian Center. For more information please visit www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org, follow us on Twitter @GburgBookFest or like us on Facebook and Instagram.
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