Legacy: The 2019/2020 Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest Chapbook
March 24, 2020
Every year, Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program holds the Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest to celebrate the wisdom, creativity, and heart captured in student and teacher writing.
The inspiration from this year’s contest was drawn from Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic historical novel that follows a Korean family over the course of the twentieth century, through both their immigration to Japan, and through the historical, cultural, and familial effects of that legacy felt across generations.
This year’s Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest invited applicants to explore similar themes of “legacy”—to examine what legacies have shaped their lives, and to look into the future, to the legacy they hope to impart to the world. The contest was open to all students, grades K-12, attending a WITS partner school during this school year. Teachers from these schools were also invited to submit their work. Pieces were selected based on their originality, use of language, and the success of the piece of writing as a whole.
We are delighted to share with you the winning writing pieces, along with other superb submissions. Read all of these amazing poems in the Legacy eChapbook.