Five SFJHS Students Honored

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Five SFJHS students were honored at a special launch party for the publication of their short stories in Write Outside Yourself, Volume IV: Haunts and Horrors, a young adult story writing contest. Katelyn Hurst, Grace Hernandez, Cheyenne Jensen, Natalie Joyce Olson, and Jones Lewis entered this statewide contest for junior and high school students with a range of emotions from Why not? to I’ll never win! to I hope I win!

In addition to having their short stories published in this annual journal, Natalie Joyce Olson won “Best Protagonist” for her short story “Don’t Get Out of Bed; You’ll Regret It,” Cheyenne Jensen won “Best Antagonist” for her short story “Vivian’s Diary,” and Jones Lewis won “Best Comedy” for his short story “Appliances’ Revenge.” 

These short stories, along with Katelyn Hurst’s “The Bloody Knife” and Grace Hernandez’s “Revenge on Mary,” can be read in the copy of Write Outside Yourself, Volume IV: Haunts and Horrors held in the reference section at the Spanish Fork Jr. High School Library and in the reference section at the Fulton Library at UVU.

All students who were published in this journal had the opportunity to work with an experienced revisionist to help them polish their stories before publishing.  This can be a scary or intimidating experience for 13-year-old students, but each one found the experience valuable and they learned a lot about the writing and revision process. Of this process Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Dees wrote, “They’ve written, revised, and infused each piece with emotion. It was a pleasure witnessing the great work they put into revising. With help from the wonderful WOY staff, the authors developed their pieces into something they should be proud of.”

In addition, Katelyn Hurst and Cheyenne Jensen had an opportunity to participate in a story exchange, workshopping their stories with other winners across the state.  At the reception held in their honor, Natalie Joyce Olson was asked to read a portion of her story and she did so with great flare and drama. The launch party/reception was a night to remember!

If you see these students, make sure to congratulate them on this incredible accomplishment and read their stories! Next year’s prompt is “Tales Throughout Time.” You should enter because you, too, can be published!

Attributions
By Garlynn Parker