On January 25th, in the Madden Auditorium at the Decatur Public Library, the Decatur Area Poets held their first book release and poetry reading, celebrating their new anthology, Inkwell. As part of this event they also celebrated the top eight finalists in the first ever, Decatur-wide high school student poetry competition.
The finalists and top three winners were:
1st Place - Eden Wilkinson, St. Teresa High School
2nd Place - Charlotte Bramer, MacArthur High School
3rd Place - Jaimylee Porter, MacArthur High School
Finalist - Allure Johnson Fitzpatrick, Eisenhower High School
Finalist - Emma Martinek, Unity Christian High School
Finalist - Rachel Miller, St. Teresa High School
Finalist - Haylei Sharp, Eisenhower High School
Finalist - Riahna Woodland, Unity Christian High School
All eight student finalists were published in Inkwell, along with 29 other poets. Although many of the poets are from Decatur, there are poets from across the state as well as one from California, and one from Florida.
The event on January 25th featured readings from the student poets as well as other Inkwell poets. In total, 113 students entered the competition, which began at the start of the 2024-2025 school year. Decatur Area Poets plans to continue the competition in the next school year, expanding it to all of Macon County. They also plan to publish a 2nd volume of Inkwell.
The poetry competition was sponsored by WAND TV, and supported by the Illinois State Poetry Society, Decatur Public Library, and Svendsen Florist. Without all of this support, this event would not have been possible. Thank you!
This event was also made possible by many of the members of Decatur Area Poets who give of their time, talent, and money, freely. If you would like to support Decatur Area Poets, you can purchase their anthology from Amazon by clicking this link: https://a.co/d/19RliMG
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