Congratulations to this year's winners and honorable mentions in the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum’s sixth annual Literary Contest!
Grades 9 – 10:
Chelsea Zhu, “Custom Postcard, Undelivered”
Grades 9 – 10 Honorable Mention:
Claire Guo, “For the Moon”
Grades 11 – 12:
Ziyi Yan, “Becoming a Magician”
Grades 11 – 12 Honorable Mention:
Bella Rotker, “Elegy for the fish my brother buried at the top of Slayter Hill”
Undergraduate:
Grace Yu, “Immigration”
Undergraduate Honorable Mention:
Gracelyn Mitchell, “Reveries of Dried Ink”
The theme for 2023 – 2024 was “The Best Postman in the World” to honor the centennial of F. Scott Fitzgerald's play The Vegetable. The Fitzgeralds’ literary and artistic works from the 1920s and 1930s are still regarded as groundbreaking, and The Fitzgerald Museum is pleased to honor these young writers as daring and revolutionary writers of their generation. Thank you to Jim Hilgartner for judging the high school entries and to Zestlan Simmons for judging the undergraduate category.
About the two high school winners, judge Jim Hilgartner had these remarks:
Chelsea Zhu’s poem “Custom Postcard, Undelivered” takes First Place in the Grade 9-10 group. It is, at every turn, clear, precise, and intensely relevant, with fresh and surprising juxtapositions, like the one that opens the poem (“You told me you forgot whether the Dogwood tree in the front / yard or my pronunciation of “Lún” made you sneeze in April”) and a deconstructive approach to both the assigned theme (ambition) and the hard emotional truths that parental ambition sometimes imposes on the children in immigrant families. The poem’s final juxtaposition, parental expectations vs. the child’s “falling behind, like [she] didn’t care about responsibility” is, absolutely, revolutionary. The poem’s final words, “In another poem, I will be enough” left me breathless.
Ziyi Yan’s poem “Becoming a Magician” takes first place in the Grade 11-12 group. Revolutionary at its core, this poem turns the ambition to survive a hard breakup into a triumphant victory. By naming the ex, breaking the name down into component syllables, then redefining the ex in terms of these new syllables, the speaker realizes that they have taken the ex’s power for themself. In the end, the speaker has become the magician, and has made the ex “melt . . . like rice paper. . . .” Like a magic act, the poem abounds with showmanship and transformations. Fundamentally innovative, dependent on wordplay and on linguistic one-upsmanship, the poem invites us to wonder whether it will slip and tumble, letting us see the card up the sleeve, the false bottom in the rabbit hat. But it doesn’t, and the tension builds. The images feel at once incongruous and inevitable, and the stakes just keep getting higher. When the speaker finally says, “I am nothing if not my own / magician,” we know they are right. And when they conclude, “even you / cannot touch me” we want to stand up and clap.
About the undergraduate winner Grace Yu, judge Zestlan Simmons had these remarks:
The winning entry, "Immigration," adeptly reflects the theme of ambition and pursuit of a goal by juxtaposing phrases from a rule with images of adversity from the accompanying poem. The poem intricately navigates through the lines of the law, revealing the speaker's determination to excel despite formidable obstacles. It skillfully weaves together Korean symbols, historical events, and personal anecdotes, resulting in a multifaceted and innovative form and style. This clever approach effectively conveys the speaker's dynamic tenacity and hope, emblematic of the immigrant experience.
In its six years, the contest, which is open to high school students and college undergraduates, has received submissions from around the United States and from Europe and Asia. This year's honorees attend schools and colleges in Michigan, Maryland, California, Connecticut, Alabama, and Illinois. The three grade-level winners will receive a monetary prize, and all honorees will have their works published on the Fitzgerald Museum’s website.
This year was the fourth year for the Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Young Writers Award. Montgomery, Alabama native Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was daring and revolutionary in her life, art, and writing, and award that bears her name seeks to identify and honor Alabama’s high school students who share her talent and spirit. This year's judging yielded no recipient for the award.
For more information about the Zelda Award, visit the Fitzgerald Museum website. Guidelines for next year's contest will be posted on the museum's website in August 2024.