2006 creative writing contest winners slick, smooth, cold to the touch; vibrates my fingers, gives...

2006 Creative Writing Contest Winners

Slick, smooth, cold to the touch;vibrates my fingers,

gives me a rush.Satisfies the soul, soothes

complicated feelings.Razor strings slash,

and your tips start bleeding.Don’t know when to stop,and take a deep breathas your fingers slide by

touching each fret.Get lost in the rhythm

as you close your eyes,and lick by lick become

one with the vibe.

This PassionBy: Alexis Mohler

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry)- Honorable Mention

Inspiration for the Work – “My inspiration mainly comes from my mood and what is going on in my life at the time.”

Excerpt –“I stand here before youA knife held high in my handI cut my shimmering celestial wings offAnd hurl them towards the ground”

Elida High School Sponsoring Teacher- Peggie Stubbs

Interests – Writing Poetry and Fictional Stories, Reading, Music, Japanese Bands, Manga, Animation, Japanese/American Movies

Future Plans – “I plan on going to college, although I’m undecided on which one at the current time, to major in an English related topic. I plan to become either a fictional writer or a poet.”


Future Plans- “I plan to be a high school science teacher…I believe that becoming a high school teacher is a great decision because it will combine my love for science and God’s calling in my life to work with the next generation of teens.”

Excerpt –“I decide to go back the way I came.I dare not go much farther.Yet when I turn around,I realize that the path behind has started to crumble.”

Temple Christian High School Sponsoring Teacher- Elizabeth Knick

Interests –Playing Softball, Writing Poetry, Playing Oboe for Band, Playing Piccolo for Pep Band, Playing Flute for Solo and Ensemble, On Church’s Bible Quiz Team

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Fiction)- Honorable Mention

Excerpt –“My name is Chuck Michealson, and I have a

dog named Fido. One time, Fido saved my life. I was being attacked by a rabid rock star. This rock star had everything: women, money, a giant house, women, a Rolex, women, and everything else you can imagine, unfortunately, he also had rabies. And this made him sad…

That’s it! That is the perfect story! I knew if I kept at it I would get it! I never, EVER, doubted myself for an instant. I better get working on it right away.”

Delphos Jefferson High School Sponsoring Teacher- Mrs. Siebeneck


Excerpt –“Together, we could bring color and life,

The air would ring with the sound of the mountains.But the time is not right, the sun cannot shine forth, it is a prisoner.

I must wait for the time when it is freed, I must continue to flow.”


Interests – Playing Volleyball, Reading, Writing Plays, Veterinary Medicine, and Classic Literature.

Future Plans – “Attend college for veterinary medicine and run my own large and small animal clinic.”

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry) – Honorable Mention

Inspiration for the Work – “The month that I had spent with my mom and grandmother at this datcha several summers ago was what first came to my mind.”

Excerpt –“Little girl, losing her head, picking all that’s in sight, forgetting mom’s warnings, returning home beaming, little basket all full of bad mushrooms.”

Bath High School Sponsoring Teacher- Charlyn Ellington

Interests – Music (piano and percussion), Tennis, and Languages (studying 3rd language)

Future Plans – “I am still undecided as to my major or future profession, but I hope to continue to write, regardless of either”


Inspiration for the Work – She wrote this story because it describes typical high school life. It is also based on real-life situations she experienced first and second-hand.

Excerpt –“The bowling part was a little lame but I will get over it. Chad asked

me out Friday, so I have two days. I wonder what will happen!!”


Interests – cheerleading competitively for The Lima Rebels, The Center Stage Hotshots, and Bath High School

Future Plans – Attend college to become a nurse

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry): Honorable Mention

Excerpt –“Listen to the tale of a man’s dull life,Who was married to a cantankerous wife,Who being as broad as she was tall,Dwarfed this man, who being very small,Feared her more than any known disease,She was a mean old woman and hard to please.”

Elida High School Sponsoring Teacher- Peggie Stubbs


Inspiration for the Work – “I dream a lot and thankfully, I remember them most of the time. The poem I wrote was simply me explaining all of the things I have done in an alternate world. Things that can hardly be done in this time and world, but [they] are everyday happenings in the realm of dreams.”

Excerpt –“I have been a merchant and a mercenary I have been the darkness and the light I have been human and I have been animal I have been part of the most brutal fight”

Spencerville High School Sponsoring Teacher- Emily Klosterman

Interests – Drawing, working with animals, golfing, singing, reading



Excerpt –“Ark looked at the ravaged village in disbelief. He looked around for something to bring him hope; maybe they had taken a wrong turn. His last shred of hope was torn from him as he found a familiar building, his home. He ran inside and found his family scattered about. He checked them for life but found none.”

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry)- 3rd place

Inspiration for the Work – Her interest in playing the guitar

Excerpt –“Slick, smooth, cold to the touch;

vibrates my fingers,gives me a rush.

Satisfies the souls, soothescomplicated feelings.”


Interests – Snow boarding, art, guitar

Future Plans – Attend college to pursue a degree in design

Excerpt –“She occasionally popped a bubble, causing it to explode. The tink tink tink of her type writer began to get on my nerves, but I kept silent.”

Delphos St. John’s High School Sponsoring Teacher- Christina Elwer

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry)- 2nd Place

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Fiction)- 3rd Place

Excerpt –“The memory of my time with

The Rock God,Forever seared into my mind

To replay over and over again,Until the day he rescues me

Form this cold,Dark abyss.”

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Fiction)- 2nd Place

Inspiration for the Work – “I have always been interested in psychological issues, but after I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it cinched my interest in writing a story around mental illness.”

Excerpt –“Later, Alastair lay in the psychiatry dormitory and opened up his T.S. Eliot book. He tried to finish the poem he’d started earlier that day. The man who had cursed so profoundly earlier grinned at him from the bed next to him.”

Lima Senior High School Sponsoring Teacher- Jeannine Jordan-Squire

Interests – Irish History, Scottish History, Researching Medical Information, and Politics

Future Plans – “Heading for Medical School”

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Poetry)- 1st Place

Inspiration for the Work – Inspired by a true story

Excerpt –“Make my mind stop thinking of the only thing it does

Make my body rid you from meBecause I can’t stand knowing my medicine man is killing me”

Delphos St. John’s High School Sponsoring Teacher- Christina Elwer

Interests – “I like to try to play my guitar. I love to listen to music. Music is my very own ‘little secret hide-out.’”

Future Plans – “Something to do with music because music is a very large part of my life…Music is what inspires me to be creative, express myself, and show people how I’m feeling and who I am.”

Freshman/Sophomore Division (Fiction)- 1st Place

Delphos Jefferson High School Sponsoring Teacher – Mrs. Siebeneck

Hobbies and Interests- Wrestling, Soccer, Writing, and Sketching

Future Plans – “I hope to be a writer when I’m older.”

Excerpt –“The Returner threw back the long sleeves of his

trench coat and laced his fingers. The ink across his knuckles formed an ancient symbol that had long lost its true meaning. A translation was unnecessary now; the symbols meant one thing and one thing only: repulsion.

Between his hands, the Returner could feel the cool metal of the medallion as he gripped it tightly.”

Junior/Senior Division (Poetry): Honorable Mention

Excerpt –“Dying in a room with no way outWill my soul be able to leave when my body diesI am so ashamed of the way I must goCrushed by my own dark web of lies”

Bath High School Sponsoring Teacher- Elaine Bradley

Inspiration for the Work – “My twin actually inspired me for the reflection bit because we used to look so much alike that I can’t even tell her from myself in old pictures.”

Interests – Writing poetry and stories, playing Alto Sax in Marching and Concert Band

Future Plans – “Attending Rhodes State to become a medical transcriptionist… I also plan to write a little on the side just for a release from my stressful environment.”

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction): Honorable Mention

Excerpt –“The air is hot, moist, and stale. He hates the smallness of the room. He hates the tiny window which allows him a view of paradise, but blocks the sweet kiss of an ocean breeze. A familiar feeling has returned. It is the notion that he is in some sort of dungeon. His tie, its knot tightly pressed against his Adam’s apple, feels like a collar, choking him and weighing him down. The Spanish speaking voices now belong to cruel inquisitors, and they demand loyalty to a mighty patriarch in whom he no longer believes or trusts.”

Shawnee High School Sponsoring Teacher- Margie Bush


Excerpt –“I am like a wild flowerSilent to corruption, deafening to vividnessGrowing rapidly and creating secretsAnger and passion feed my fiery dispositionAnd my dreams and desires multiplyCreating subsistence within the fields that I thrive

Emptiness consumed by desiresBuilt up in the blackened firesOf corruptionThe reach of a total lossSanctioned by our own crossOf Redemption”

Apollo Career Center Sponsoring Teacher- Jane Ewen

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction)- Honorable Mention

Inspiration for the Work – An experience Alex had with a stranger at the downtown Kewpee inspired this story. “I think that the story is more about classism than racism and I think sometimes those two are confused. I wanted to write about that and about unreasonable fear towards the poor.”

Excerpt – “At each stop, more and more of the same people began to enter the bus and take their seats around Frank. Dark skinned and ragged, poor and mischievous, he thought. The shiny belt of the purse of the woman sitting to his right flashed at him like an impatient knife. Bulges in the men’s pockets began to take on the form of portly pistols waiting for the opportunity to take aim. The glint of snow lost its wintry feel, replaced instead by bags of cocaine.”

Lima Central Catholic High School

Sponsoring Teacher- Joshua Vasquez


Excerpt –“She thought a long while as the game went onAnd watched as Mike struck out anew.She watched a the parents waved to their child.Who still smiled at a loss of 13 to 2.

After the game had endedThe woman guided Mike with a tugTo sit down as she said she’d like to be friendsAnd she drew him into a hug.”

Bluffton High School Sponsoring Teacher- Beth Cogley

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction)- Honorable Mention

Inspiration for the Work – “What inspired me most was a short story I read by Jack London entitled ‘Moon-Face.’”

Excerpt –“One day, I was fervently drawing away with what was possibly one of the best drawings I had ever drawn, when the Blue Admiral flew away. I ran after it, searching with all that I had. I was so involved with the chase that I became completely disoriented. I had no clue where I was, until it dawned on me. I had stumbled into the very land upon which was forbidden to me: the north woods.”


Interests – Music and Sports


Excerpt –“I am not your average felineThough I may seem sassy and high maintenanceA contributor to life’s lessonsA good companion for a teenage girl

Remember curiosity never killed anything-Except a few hours.”


Junior/Senior Division (Fiction): Honorable Mention

Excerpt –"The proposition was mailed to all the countries, and all of the arrangements were made for the princesses to come to Lekvoria. A new day was dawning, and the time was nearing for everything to fall into place. Now this brings us to the large, quaint town of Benestra, where in the center sat a magnificent palace. It was surrounded by a moat that flowed from a huge fountain, practically a waterfall, located in the center of the palace. Vines with gorgeous flowers climbed the palace walls and wrapped around the gates."



Inspiration for the Work – “I was inspired to write my work because of the heavy stress of my life at the time, including going to college and tearing my ACL.”

Excerpt –“she was traversing the high, pale clouds

with wings unfurled and eyes bright until she crossed paths with Reality and he kicked her out of flight”

Bluffton High School Sponsoring Teacher- Beth Cogley

Interests – Reading, sleeping

Future Plans – “I plan to go to Albion College in Albion, Michigan next year.”

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction)- 3rd Place

Excerpt –“There is nothing on it, no name etched into its wooden cross. But looking at it, somewhat isolated from the others, I know whose it is.”

Bluffton High School Sponsoring Teacher- Elizabeth Cogley

Hobbies and Interests- Playing Piano, Writing, Playing Soccer, Acting, and Singing

Future Plans – “I plan on majoring in aviation and minoring in Spanish at OSU (in Columbus) next fall and hope to eventually become a commercial pilot for international flights.”

Inspiration for the work- Rachel got the idea for this story from a paragraph she had brainstormed a year ago.

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction)- 2nd Place

Inspiration for the Work – “I believe that I wrote this story to not only express my interest and recognition of the Cajun/Creole heritage in Louisiana, but to show that people should not always judge on their first impulse.” Dennis previously lived in New Orleans and loosely bases his style on Creole writer Kate Chopin.

Excerpt –“Sitting at his dimly gas lit bureau, Andre was efficiently filing

papers in between huge gray puffs of smoke from his Mexican cigar. As he was finishing up with his bank statements, he neutrally asked his wife for something to drink. After mixing it a little with the slotted absinthe spoon, she nonchalantly set it next to him. As she silently approached him, he eyed her with a slight suspicion- one that only comes when a normally inquisitive wife is sharply silent.”

Lima Central Catholic High School

Sponsoring Teacher- Joshua Vasquez

Interests – Reading and Writing Short Compositions, Playing Violin and Piano, Traveling, and Louisianan Cooking

Junior/Senior Division (Poetry)-2nd Place

Excerpt – he this boy, his reflection

punch that mirror destroy the beauty

with glass in his knuckles on the bathroom floor

with the blood and tears he can trust the lies she’s told him”

Delphos St. John’s High School Sponsoring Teacher- Susan Knippen

Hobbies and Interests- Dance, Writing for Leisure, Drawing, Watching Silent Movies and Independent Art Films

Future Plans – “I plan to attend Columbia College of Chicago and major in film/video production with a concentration in cinematography.”

Junior/Senior Division (Fiction)- 1st Place

Inspiration for the Work – “The War in Iraq. …This work was written as a means of catharsis, to release the tension I feel when I hear of some new atrocity.”

Excerpt –“Then you would see a face so removed from the

present that you could see right through his eyes, like the panes of slightly warped glass, and behind it a dropping away as if of some vast cliff, and at the bottom who knows?”

Shawnee High School Sponsoring Teacher- Kathie Naab

Interests – “I sincerely enjoy the act of writing and stringing words together in such a way as to be new and exciting. I have been an avid reader for as far back as I can remember, encouraged by family and teachers alike.”

Future Plans – “I plan to try my luck at Stanford University in California… Maybe something in journalism… or perhaps something in the medical field (both my parents are doctors).”

Junior/Senior Division (Poetry) – 1st Place

Excerpt –“And as each moment passedReason faded from their mindsAt first they began to squabbleAnd then they began to fightAnd as the minutes passedThey failed to see their plight”

Bluffton High School Sponsoring Teacher – Elizabeth Cogley

Interests – Reading, Writing, Running, Flag Corps, Watching Movies, and Listening to Music

Future Plans – Study Pharmacy at The University of Toledo

2006 creative writing contest winners slick, smooth, cold to the touch; vibrates my fingers, gives...

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