We Read Youth Voices Writing Contest: Authors Reception
In celebration of the 2024 We Read Youth Voices Anthology, we invite the featured authors and their families to join us for donuts and coffee, reveal the published book, and hear a special question and answer session from our grand prize winner and runners-up.
Read the inspiration behind these young writers' submissions:
Grace Huang: As someone who faced many language and racial barriers in their childhood, every small act of kindness I encountered has left a profound impact on me. This story is one of those experiences that has inspired me over the years and will continue doing so.
Nora Moran: I wrote this story because I was thinking about how small acts of kindness have a domino effect and we don’t know how it can spread and how much of an impact it has on the world.
Ash Gartler: I was inspired to create this story to illustrate both the cruelty and beauty of humanity, and to bring awareness to a topic that is deeply important to me from a unique perspective.
Diya Dhawal
Diya is a junior at Middleton High School where she plays golf and is involved in a lot of clubs. Outside of school, Diya runs a robotics team, likes going to the gym, hanging out with her family and friends and reading mysteries.
Grace Huang
We Read Youth Voices Writing Contest: Grand Prize Winner
Grace Huang is a senior at Madison West High School, where she plays Varsity tennis and is a violinist in the school orchestra. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the New York Times, the Scholastic Choices Magazine, among others. She loves dark chocolate, autumn, and her cats, who like to hog the overheated keyboard she daydreams on.
Nora Moran
We Read Youth Voices Writing Contest: Runner Up
Nora is a sixth grader at Immaculate Heart of Mary school. She loves reading, writing, animals, acting, and art. Nora wants to be a writer and a librarian.
Ash Gartler
We Read Youth Voices Writing Contest: Grand Prize Winner
Ash is a sophomore at West High School born in Chicago and raised in Madison. He has always had a creative mind and loved writing since childhood, especially as a form of personal expression. While he specializes in poetry and short stories, he enjoys all forms of literature and is interested in branching out to other genres such as screenwriting and science fiction. Much of his work is deeply inspired by his personal interests and an understanding of human relationships, highlighted by his sometimes harsh, pointed style. He is very passionate about music and film, and enjoys playing sports and cooking in his free time. He is excited for a future in creative writing in college and hopes to attend university abroad to travel and explore his passions