Michaela Stevens, a junior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, earned recognition in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards national competition.
Stevens received a National Silver Key for her poem “expired film” in the writing competition. She advanced to the national competition by earning a Regional Golden Key in the competition’s regional contest earlier this year.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. It is among the nation’s most prestigious program for creative teams and is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Previous award-winners during the competition’s history include Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Tschabalala Self and others.
Stevens was on her way home from an ASMSA Global Learning Program trip to Spain when she found out she had won the National Silver Key. She told her friends who were sitting with her in the airport and then texted her mom.
“I was pretty surprised but really excited,” she said. “This award definitely encourages me to keep writing and competing with my poems. To know that people really appreciate my writing is exciting so I just want to keep writing and improving.”
She wrote “expired film” during the summer of 2022 while her family was driving to Orange Beach, Ala. The poem is inspired by her homesickness for Serbia, the country in which she grew up.
“I started thinking of all the things stopping me from going back to Serbia and how I wish I could just drive myself back,” she said after winning the Regional Gold Key. “But that’s not possible, and even if it was, my life never seems to go where I think it is going to, so I don’t think I actually arrive at my destination.
“I wrote the poem specifically during my family’s drive to Alabama, and I started thinking of my life as a road trip. I get distracted and take circuitous paths to get places. I accumulate good and bad memories along the way. All that is to say that this poem is about missing a home you can never go back to but accepting that and living your life nonetheless.”
expired film
i’ve always wanted to smoke a cigarette
but i can hardly breathe already
the smell of smoke is home on black-and-white film
so nostalgia could be worth it
i’ve always wanted to drive myself home
but there’s an ocean in the way
if not, i’d veer off and get lost
stop to smell a rose, let its thorns draw blood
a rose-tinted rearview mirror
the past a distorted, dizzy blur
an outlet mall, an open field,
a highway keeps me grounded
running red lights and stopping on green
passenger seat full of pain, backseat of baggage
a road trip through the bible belt,
never knowing where i’m headed
Stevens decided to enter the competition after receiving an email from Brian Isbell, one of ASMSA’s humanities instructors, alerting students about the contest. She discovered the competition provided scholarships for some contestants. It was also an opportunity for her to share her poetry with others.