Young writers and poets were recognized in the Young Southern Student Writers contest organized by SoLit and the UTC English department.

The Young Southern Student Writers (YSSW) contest was started in 1999, and this year, there were more than 3,500 entries by students in public and private schools and home schools in Hamilton County. Faculty in the UTC English department read each entry and award winners from each school and grade in prose and poetry in grades K-12. All Bright School third, fourth and fifth graders submit entries. There are 23 Bright student winners, and two students won in both prose and poetry.

Fifth grade winners:
James Anderson: Prose
Connor Cyrus: Prose
Olivia Mahaffey: Poetry AND Prose
Ryan Mahone: Poetry
Leighton Miller: Prose
Stella Reyes: Poetry AND Prose

Fourth grade winners:
Andrew Craig: Prose
Catherine Craig: Prose
James Exum: Poetry
Royce Felts: Poetry
Ava Taslimi: Prose
Logan Winter: Poetry

Third grade winners:
Olivia Cameron: Poetry
Roger Caputo: Prose
Charlie Card: Prose
Kismet Edmondson: Poetry
Harper Furrow: Poetry
Molly Gray: Poetry
Judson Hill: Poetry
Zoe Pearson: Prose
Ella Sextl: Prose
Pate Vinson: Prose
Lucy Webb: Prose

Also, Bright School had several alumni win awards: Gunnar Boggs ‘23, Mary Elizabeth Hicks ‘23, Catherine Hemphill ‘22, Pei-Ying Olsen ‘22. 

An awards ceremony was held on Tuesday, April 23, at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall at UTC.