St. Joe Juniors Sweep NCTE Writing Competition

Maggie Maxim, Alissa Black, Juhi Bhatt, Fiona Rusk, and Claudia Davis show off their earned awards. 

Photo by Jamie Culver

On May 20, the National Council of Teachers of English awarded juniors Fiona Rusk, Juhi Bhatt, and Alissa Black with the First Class NCTE Achievement Award in Writing. Juniors Claudia Davis and Maggie Maxim were honored with the Superior Award, as well. These five students all placed in the top two ranks of the competition for all of Michigan, among 680 students who submitted nationally. 

The students were given a prompt to “write a piece about how literature heals.” They worked from November 13-February 15 to write up to 10 pages answering the prompt. The girls all found time in between their regular rigorous classes to create these works of writing. 

“It was hard to work outside of class, and without a teacher,” Fiona said. She remarked that it was easy to get into her head, but the response groups held among the 5 writers helped “bring [her] back to earth.” 

While Juhi, Claudia, and Fiona wrote collections of braided essays and memoirs recalling their experiences with literature, Alissa and Maggie showcased their talent in poetry to earn their awards. Reflecting on why she chose to write in the form of poetry, Maggie said that she “felt poetry could let me go beyond the bounds of traditional prose. That lets me write in a train of thought rather than a more structured…view of things.” 

The same contest will be available to juniors in the winter of 2025, with a new prompt welcoming the next generation of talented writer’s ideas.