Mykelti Thurman and Abdulrahman Swati will be honored October 29th at the Louisiana Book Festival on the grounds of the State Capitol for winning 2nd and 3rd place in the 2022 Youth Writing Contest sponsored by Louisiana Writes! Louisiana Writes, in partnership with the Center for the Book at the State Library of Louisiana, sponsors an annual Youth writing contest. Entries can be made in several genres: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and in two languages: French and English.
In the Spring of 2022, OHS Language instructors encouraged their students to write and submit essays. It paid off as two OHS students beat out entrants from across the state to win 2nd and 3rd in their categories for 11th-12th graders! Mykelti Thurman won 2nd place in the Fiction Category with an essay “The Starscape” and Abdulrahman Swati won 3rd place in the Nonfiction category with “Losing a Friend” The judges commented that the essays showed “both originality and mastery of writing skills.”
The honor of the award is magnified as this is the first ceremony to be held since the outbreak of the Pandemic. At the “festive occasion where family, friends, and fellow “scribblers” gather to celebrate the work of Louisiana's outstanding student writers,” Mykelti and Abdulrahman will receive a medal and certificate of recognition for their achievement. The judges remarked that they “look forward to reading another submission in the 2023 contest.” Maybe we will see these two writers and a few more honored next year!