English teacher Eric Bergman had students celebrate National Poetry Month with the launch of The Portraits of Clinton Poetry Project anthology. Henry Carter Hull Library organized a program for poetry reading celebrating National Poetry Month. The Portraits of Clinton Poetry Project is the first anthology of poems to highlight Clinton residents. First-time poets, as well as experienced poets, provide a portrait of themselves and landmarks in town. Along with that, there are also in-person readings with authors. Cathy Weiss, the poet and organizer of this event was the developer and editor of the book, “Portraits of Clinton Poetry Project.”

Mr. Bergman explained, “the event was just a celebration for only about an hour, in which they had different readers to read different pieces of poetry.” Three students in his creative reading class attended this event, but a bunch of people in town that have connected with Cathy Weiss attended the event as well. Mr. Bergman’s wife and other members of the community also read some pieces out loud. Mr. Bergman said, “I think this is a wonderful event that celebrated all the different voices in Clinton, which includes student voices.”

Class of 2022 graduate, Nat Giaimo was Cathy Weiss’s last intern and helped in creating a third of this anthology together. A piece that she wrote was poetry called, “Dead Name”. Her poem talks about her name and how everyday she is called by her old name and not what she prefers to be called. She writes that people don’t listen and is called by a name that she is no longer attached to.

Senior Charlotte Monty was recognized by the Connecticut Student Writers Project at UCONN. She received a silver award for her artwork “Valley Home” and college essay “The Sea of Fabric”. The Connecticut Writing Project sponsors Connecticut Student Writers, a magazine established in 1987 by the project to honor excellence in writing by students from kindergarten through high school. They host a Student Recognition Night, to celebrate the students’ work on the UConn campus. Each year, over 1,500 students from across Connecticut submit entries vividly demonstrating their passion for the craft of writing. From this large pool of poetry, essays, stories, and drama, submissions in poetry and prose are chosen to be published or honored from each grade level. Charlotte Monty explained her inspiration and information about both her artwork, “Valley Home” and her college essay, “The Sea of Fabric.”

She said, “Valley Home was a piece I did two years ago in art class. I had never worked with the medium of collage before, and I’m so glad my art class exposed me to it because it was such a different way of doing art for me. I was inspired by online pictures of a Colorado Valley, and I decided to place a wood cabin in the piece to give a more home-type feeling. The process of looking through magazines for different colors and textures and then organizing them before gluing them down was honestly a very enjoyable process for this piece.”

Charlotte shared how she decided on a topic for her college essay, “I would say my main inspiration was just my passion for sewing! At first, I didn’t have a clear idea, I feel like everyone thinks college essays have to be about something revolutionary you’ve done, and I didn’t think I had any experiences like that. I started thinking about writing, about my love of sewing and cosplay when Mrs. Chausse told us to write about something meaningful, even if it was just a hobby. She also emphasized making the story original and personal to ourselves, and I know that not too many other kids had the same experience with sewing/cosplaying that I did.” She continued, “My college essay is about finding my passion in sewing my cosplays and how I rediscovered that passion. I mainly focused on how my anxiety surrounding school kept me from engaging in sewing and cosplay, and how I am slowly overcoming this by trying to balance my academics and passion for sewing. I wanted to focus not only on something I love, but also on how I am working on dealing with my anxiety.” Charlotte also explained that, “I was excited to win the award! I was really happy with how my college essay came out, and it’s gratifying to see that others liked it as well!” 

Each year, the Shorelines Head of English Departments, held the Shoreline Writing Contest. The contest is open to any shoreline student in grades nine through twelve. The categories for the submission are short story, poetry, one-act play, humor, analysis, and personal essay. Senior Muntara Singh, placed as a finalist in the Shoreline Writing Contest for her essay, “That’s So Sikh”. As a finalist, she has earned the top three, and will find out her placement at a banquet in June. Her essay talks about her relationship with her hair, which is very long because as a Sikh, she doesn’t cut it. Her Sikh heritage is an impactful part of her life. In explaining her inspirations for writing this special piece, Muntara said, “It always felt like something that is usually the first thing that people see when they meet me, so I thought it was a big representation for who I am.” She added, “I thought about something that’s unique about me and that is the one thing, so I talked about it.” “I talked about how when people used to ask me about my hair, I would just tell them it’s my religion not to cut it, but then I started getting more comfortable with it and using it as an opportunity to start a conversation with people and learn from them.”