ASFA-CW Students Receive Recognition in the Alabama Writers’ Forum’s High School Literary Arts Awards

As ASFA-CW presses on in these uncertain times, we have good news to share: our students again did very well in the Alabama Writers’ Forum’s annual statewide High School Literary Arts Awards.

Here’s a complete rundown of the individual ASFA-CW students who received recognition this year:​

• Izzy Cox (9th Grade) won first place for the Long Creative Nonfiction category and second place for the Fiction category.
• Emily Wilford (Senior) won second place for the Long Creative Nonfiction category and won a Senior Portfolio Scholarship. Emily also received Judge’s Special Recognition for Fiction and Poetry, and a Certificate of Merit for Poetry. 
• Parker Snellgrove (11th Grade) was one of only four winners of a cash award in the newly created Short Creative Nonfiction category (winners weren’t ranked in that category) and received Judge’s Special Recognition for Fiction.
• Etta Putman (11th Grade) won first place for the Fiction category and received Judge’s Special Recognition in Long Creative Nonfiction and a Certificate of Merit for Poetry.
• Jane Ann Baggett (Senior) won first place for the Poetry category and a Certificate of Merit in Fiction.
• Cadence also won in the literary magazine contest for Exceptional Literary Content.
• Judge’s Special Recognition:
  • Myra Grizzard (11th Grade) – Long Creative Nonfiction
  • Raven Horn (11th Grade) – Long Creative Nonfiction
  • Tessa McClinton (11th Grade) – Poetry
  • ​Grace Sullivan (11th Grade) – Fiction
• Certificate of Merit:
  • Abbe Coulter (Senior) – Fiction
  • V. Spencer (11th Grade) – Long Creative Nonfiction
  • Kenzie Price (11th Grade) – Long Creative Nonfiction
  • Haley Pate (10th Grade) – Long Creative Nonfiction and Poetry

Congrats to all these students!

ASFA-CW Welcomes Poet Abraham Smith to Campus Today at 11 AM

We’re looking forward to having poet Abraham Smith at ASFA this morning. He’ll be giving a reading in the ASFA Lecture Hall starting at 11 a.m. (please note: this is a time change; it was originally scheduled for 1:45 p.m.), then he’ll conduct a prosody master class for our students. Here’s a link to his page on the Academy of American Poets website, and here’s a good profile of him and his work at the Chautauquan Daily.

The Making of ASFA-CW Senior Showcase

Was it terrifying, exhilarating, triumphant? Yes yes yes! So proud of our seniors.

ASFA-CW Senior Showcase: The Movie

Our first-ever school-wide Senior Showcase earlier this month was a smash success! We’re very pleased to now have video of the event, which is posted to the ASFA YouTube channel, along with a “making of” video featuring interviews with the students who performed interspersed with footage from the event. We’re so proud of our amazing seniors!

ASFA-CW Holiday Extravaganza

Poetry Out Loud Regionals: @asfaCW Students Advance to States!

Three ASFA-CW students — Myra Grizzard, Egg McClure, and Kenzie Price — competed in the Region III Poetry Out Loud competition in Tuscaloosa today. In what Tuscaloosa County Arts Council Education Director Sharron Rudowski described as the strongest field of competitors ever to participate in the Region III competition, Egg and Myra advanced to the state competition to be held in Montgomery next February. Egg won first place in the anthology (recitation) category and third place in the original poetry category, while Myra was chosen as one of five competitors to advance in the original category. Congrats to all the competitors on representing their schools — and poetry — so admirably!

Gearing Up for Poetry Out Loud: Three @asfaCW Poets Head to Tuscaloosa for Regional Spoken Word Workshop at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center

ASFA-CW: Open House! Sat Oct 19! | 9AM – 10AM – 11AM! | @asfaschool! Lecture Hall! (#seeyouthere!)

We’re always excited to share what we do and why we do it, so Open House is always a fun event for us. Here are a few links to check out if you’re interested in ASFA-CW:

Our Philosophy

• “How to Do What You Love” by Paul Graham
• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson

Nuts + Bolts (Poetry + Fiction)

• Poetry 180 | Academy of American Poets | Poetry Foundation
• Jhumpa Lahiri: Interview | Short Story (“The Boundary” via The New Yorker)

Selected Resources for Young Writers

• New Pages Young Writers Guide
• YoungArts Foundation| Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
• Summer Programs: Ada Long | Iowa | Sewanee | Kelly Writers House | Adroit…

 

ASFA-CW/DANCE/VISUAL-ARTS: Collab!

It’s a rite of fall around here: seniors in Creative Writing, Dance, and Visual Arts collaborate to create multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary pieces that stretch their notions of the creative process. Thanks to these brave, creative people who pushed the envelope in some super-cool ways! We’re never more a “community of explorers” than we are during this project.

ASFA-CW Welcomes Poet + Performer Jahman Hill for October “Mini-Residency”

We’re pleased to welcome poet and performer Jahman Hill to ASFA-CW for a “mini-residency” in October. On Oct 14, he’ll perform his acclaimed one-man show, “Black Enough,” for our students in the ASFA Lecture Hall. Then on the two following Mondays (Oct 21 + Oct 28), he’ll conduct master classes for our students in writing poetry for performance. We can’t wait to see what the students create under the tutelage of an artist and educator as multi-talented as Jahman!