"The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded in 1923 to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world. Through the Scholastic Awards, teens in grades 7-12 (ages 13 and up) from public, private, or home schools can apply in 29 categories of visual art and writing for their chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited and published. Just a few of [the] illustrious Alumni include Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Sylvia Plath, Ken Burns, and, more recently, Lena Dunham, Richard Linklater, and Zac Posen. The 2019 Scholastic Awards received nearly 340,000 submissions in 29 categories of art and writing from students in grades 7-12 nationwide."

The Scholastic Awards are known as the largest, the oldest, and certainly one of the most prestigious competitions for young artists and writers. To have won Honorable Mention, Silver, or Gold among such an enormous group of submissions is clearly a great distinction.

In putting together this feature for The Cortile, Ms. Egan was struck by the quality of the work. “It’s a wonderfully odd feeling,” she writes. “Students at St. Stephen’s can take the Creative Writing class over and over, every year if they wish, during their career at the school. I know these students; I know their writing. They’ve been in my class for a year, two, three, even four years. But each year, as I put together the prize-winning pieces for The Cortile, I am struck by the remarkable work that our students have done. Their specific, individual voices. Their striking, evocative imagery. The wonderful diction that they deploy in expressing deep emotion and thought. There aren’t too many joys greater than that of sitting down and reading your students’ work, and just being thrilled by it, enjoying every carefully placed word.”

We trust that you will feel the same. Enjoy these prize-winning pieces by the students of St. Stephen’s.