The Hudson City School District would like to congratulate freshman Abira Khair and Senior Carlos Lopez for both receiving second place in their respective categories of the 2023 Spencertown Academy Arts Center Young Writers’ Contest!
In the Fiction category, Abira was selected for their story of secret, repressed love during the mid-20th century, The judges for this category, authors Emily A. McCully and Elaine Khosrova, said Abira “smartly strung together various brief, chronological scenes of a central relationship in the first-person narrator’s life. Together, the scenes created an arc of a life-long heartache and longing. The writing skillfully created a sense of time and place through well-placed, observant details.”
In the Non-Fiction category (memoir or personal essay), Carlos’ El Otro Lado del Odio was judged by former magazine writers judged by David Cudaback and Kathy Zdeb. Here’s what Cudaback and Zdeb said of Carlos’ work: “A father’s calloused hands and worn-away fingerprints turn a son’s resentment into understanding and eventually forgiveness for the work expected of him in the family business. A tough subject handled with grace and compassion.”
