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Local Teen Writers Win State Competition

Virginia Writers Club Teen Scholarship Winner Rene Ordoobadi of Bristow
Virginia Writers Club Teen Scholarship Winner Rene Ordoobadi of Bristow

Scholarship winner; 8 of 10 Golden Nib Contest winners are Prince William teens
The Virginia Writers Club has announced winners of their annual Teen Scholarship and Teen Golden Nib Contest competitions:
2014 VWC SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
Renee Christina Ordoobadi – Bristow, Virginia
2014 TEEN GOLDEN NIB CONTEST WINNERS
HIGH SCHOOL – POETRY
1st Place – “Recess” by Renee Christina Ordoobadi
2nd Place – “Identity” by Teja, Janai Barnes, Dupree
3rd Place – “Acute Regression” by Neil Adair McMillan Hailey
Honorable Mention – “Homeless” by Leah Madeline Gaush
HIGH SCHOOL – NONFICTION
1st Place – “Glimpsing the World” by Katherine Brown
2nd Place – “When Life Gives You Lemons” by Phebe Ciemny
3rd Place – “Pilot” by Leah Madeline Gaush
Honorable Mention – “The Face of Depravity” by Renee C. Brittigan
HIGH SCHOOL – FICTION
1st Place – “Imperfect” by Erin Marguerite McCall
2nd Place – “Puppetmaster” by Kayleigh McCoy
3rd Place – “A Heavy Conscience” by Katherine Brown
Honorable Mention – “Awaiting the Fury” by Morgan Nicole Shaffer
Eight of the 10 teen winners live in Prince William, attend Woodbridge Senior High School and are enrolled in the CFPA Creative Writing Program.
Scholarship winner Renee Christina Ordoobadi recently graduated from Woodbridge Senior High School, and was enrolled in the CFPA Creative Writing Program. In March, she taught poetry at the Write by the Rails’ Rising Writers Workshop in Manassas. In June, she was one of 14 poets nominated for the Prince William Poet Laureate and became part of the Prince William Poet Laureate Circle at Tackett’s Mill. She is a contributing writer to BristowBeat.com and lives in Bristow, Virginia.
Phebe Ciemny, who recently graduated WSHS, and Neil Adair McMillan Hailey, a junior, were also among the 14 poets nominated for the Prince William Poet Laureate and in June became part of the Prince William Poet Laureate Circle at Tackett’s Mill. Ciemny taught poetry at the Write by the Rails’ Rising Writers Workshop in Manassas in March, along with Erin Marguerite McCall, who also recently graduated WSHS. McCall taught writing and the arts at the Write by the Rails’ Rising Writers Workshop. Teja, Janai Barnes, Dupree is a WSHS junior, and writes for the Valkyrie newspaper; Renee C. Brittigan is also a junior; Katherine Brown is a sophomore, whose winning piece, “Glimpsing the World,” was published in Eddas 2014 Bifrost. She attended the Write by the Rails’ Rising Writers Workshop in Manassas in March. Leah Madeline Gaush is a freshman at WSHS. Brittigan, Brown, Ciemny, Hailey, McCall and Ordoobadi all have additional writing published in Eddas 2014 Bifrost.
“I’m so proud of all of them,” said Woodbridge Senior High School creative writing teacher Cathy Hailey, who was herself featured in the March issue of Prince William Living magazine as one of the five Influential Women of 2014.
Founded in 1918, the Virginia Writers Club, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of writers and poets, screenwriters and playwrights, journalists and essayists, and other publishing professionals whose purpose is to support and stimulate the art, craft and business of writing, as well as advocate the literary arts in the broader Virginia community. For more information, contact Write by the Rails, the Prince William Chapter of the Virginia Writers Club at www.writebytherails.org or writebytherails@gmail.com.
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