The students of the Clark State College Creative Writer’s Club, under the guidance of faculty advisers Chris Bays and Tabitha Parker, hosted the 2023 Voices of the Valley Poetry Contest – open to area high schools, colleges, and universities – and also the third annual on-campus essay contest. The theme of the poetry contest focused on “Perceptions of Reality.” The essay contest focused on well-researched essays.
The essay contest was judged by Associate Professor Tabitha Parker, Professor Chris Bays, and Hailey Barnette, student editor of Voices of the Valley, Clark State’s student journal.
The following Clark State students shined the brightest with their critical insights and thorough research in the essay contest:
- 1st Place – Lexi Wiley for “Learning Disability”
- 2nd Place – Wyatt Thomas Teets for “Newtown”
- 3rd Place – Taylor Raskay for “Hooked on the Cure”
For the Voices of the Valley Poetry Contest 2022, poems based on the theme of “Perceptions of Reality” were submitted by students from Antioch College, Cedarville University, Clark Shawnee High School, Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, Wright State University and Clark State.
The contest was judged blindly (without sight of student names) by D. Scot Hinson, Associate Professor of English at Wittenberg University, Tabitha Parker, Associate Professor of English at Clark State College, and Hailey Barnette, student editor of Voices of the Valley.
The following poets’ voices shined the brightest based on this year’s theme of “Perceptions of Reality”:
- 1st Place – Sydney Hall, Clark Shawnee High School, for “Skin Like Wax”
- 2nd Place – Alan James, Cedarville University, for “A Wasted Gift”
- 3rd Place – Olivia Baum, Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, for “Untitled”
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
- Sachea Pettigrew, Clark State College, for “Ghost of Perceptions”
- Nathaniel Shingler, Clark Shawnee High School, for “Shards of Anxiety”
- Alyvia K. Spriggs, Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, for “A Jump Without Fear”
The winners of the essay and poetry contests received cash prizes and certificates on May 5, at an Awards Banquet held in Clark State’s Brinkman Educational Center in downtown Springfield.
The winning essays and poems can be read in Clark State’s student journal Voices of the Valley 2023, Issue 5. Contact Chris Bays at baysc@clarkstate.edu or Tabitha Parker at parkert@clarkstate.edu for information on how to purchase a copy of the journal.