Winners Announced for Statewide Spanish Creative Writing Contest

OMAHA - The winners of a statewide creative writing contest featuring work written in Spanish have been announced.

Sponsored in part by Humanities Nebraska and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), the contest featured Nebraska students from grades five through 12 submitting entries in three categories: “Poemas,” or poems; “Cuentos,” or short stories; and “Historieta,” or comics. The contest was launched in January of this year with winners being announced late last week.

According to the most recent Census numbers, Latinos and Latin American immigrants make up about 10 percent of the Nebraska population. Thier language as well as their contributions to urban and rural communities can be found everywhere. The "Through Our Words" contest was designed to celebrate the Spanish language and encourage its creative use among heritage and bilingual speakers as well as speakers of Spanish as a second language.

Now in its sixth year, the contest organized annually by UNO’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literature in collaboration with the UNO Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS). The contest celebrates Spanish language and encourages its creative use among bilingual, heritage speakers and speakers of Spanish as a second language.

The winners for this year’s contest are:

Poemas (Poems)

Grades 11-12
First Prize: “Direction of the Same” Guadalupe Mora (11) Crete High School
Second Prize: “Madre mía” Jennifer Ortiz (11) Crete High School
Second Prize: “Si mismo” Yesenia Ramos (11) Crete High School
Mention One (Shared): “La cuerda anudada” Austin Ahlman, Marshall DeFor, Cheyenne Gibbons (12) Norfolk High School
Mention Two (Shared): “Ojos” Tessa Koerting, Jayce Anderson, Claire Sintek (12) Norfolk High School
Mention Three (Shared): “Rainbow Emesis” Jazmin Martinez, Chelsey Kmiecik, Tyler Miller (12) Norfolk High School

Grades 9-10
First Prize: “The Watering Trough” Cynthia Vanessa López (9) Crete High School
First Prize: “Día de los muertos” Guadalupe Lopez Lopez (9) Crete High School
Mention One: “Subiendo la sierra” Jesús Mancinas (10) Omaha Northwest High School
Mention Two: “El arte” Alexis Wilch (9) Schuyler Central High School

Grades 5-6
First Prize: “La niña de tristeza” Mila Herszbaum-Harding (6) R.M. Marrs Middle School
Second Prize: “Noche calmada” Neida Quiroz (6) R.M. Marrs Middle School
Mention One: “El bosque otoñal” Jocelyn Vazquez (6) R.M. Marrs Middle School

Cuentos (Short Stories)

Grades 11-12
First Prize: “Jackie March” Lesley Cifuentes (11) Crete High School
Second Prize: “Woman with a Black Necklace” Vanessa Ortiz (12) Crete High School
Mention One: “Ganesha el elefante” Hannah Lillard (12) Norfolk High School

Grades 9-10
First Prize: “La aventura extraterrestre” Catalina Barajas (10) Omaha South High School
Second Prize: “El cazador y sus aventuras” Ivan Larios (10) Omaha Northwest High School
Mention One: “Oculto” Pamela Juarez Bueno (9) Crete High School
Mention Two: “Isidore el trabajador” Jonathan Vasquez (9) Schuyler High School

Category 7-8
First Prize: “La furia de una tormenta” Brayan Arias (8) Schuyler Middle School
Second Prize: “La aventura de la amigas extraordinarias” Alexandra Espinoza (8) Peter Kiewit Middle School
Mention One: “Algo raro en la casa” Linda Trujillo (8) Crete Middle School

Historieta (Comic)

Category 11-12
First Prize: “Cenicienta y la subida de feminismo” CC Kelly (11) Elkhorn South High School
Second Prize: “Votos”. Grace Kraus (12) Crete High School
Mention One (Shared): “Los tres amigos” Jose Ramirez, Katia Soto (11) Norfolk High School
Trabajo distinguido como mejor guión: “Las aventuras de Don Quijote” Ethan Copple (11) Elkhorn South High School

Category 7-8
First Prize: “El piso de Alberto Perez” Daniel Wood (8) Westside Middle School
Second Prize: “MH370” Christopher Renteria (8) Schuyler Middle School

Category 5-6
First Prize (Shared): “La ciudad que se hundió en lava” Alexandre Robledo, Bryan Dominguez (5) Crestridge Middle School
Second Prize (Shared): “Bob esponja en el volcán” Rebecca Salazar, Stephanie Sanchez Peña (6) Crestridge Middle School

For more information about the contest, contact Claudia García at csgarcia@unomaha.edu or Yuriko Doku at ydoku@unomaha.edu or 402.554.3835.

For media requests, please contact Charley Reed, Associate Director of Media Relations, at unonews@unomaha.edu or 402.554.2129.

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