Here’s why she does it
“The Book Festival Writing Contest gave me a passageway to understand myself through my writing, taught me how to write more professionally, and helped my grades as well,” says Waukesha West Senior Harper Pugh.
When she attended Les Paul Middle School, she won the Festival’s Century Fence Middle School Essay Contest. Then she didn’t enter again until after Covid when she won Century Fence High School Poetry Contests in 2021 and 2022. “I entered again because of the theme, it was about the ways books take us to different places. I was named after Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, so I felt inclined to write a poem about Maycomb and other iconic places in the book, “ she added.
“In my third win, I met a girl named Autumn at the Awards Program who introduced me to the Scholastic Awards for writing. These competitions compelled me to submit my poems that weren’t made for a theme which ultimately allowed me to write more and more when I felt I needed to put pen to paper.”
Harper added, “Winning a contest made me feel like my words meant something, like they could hold a connection unexplored by others. Winning made me write more, with deeper themes and stories that resonate with people I’ve never met.” Harper continues to enter contests and recommends it to other students. “I have always had an English brain, as some may say. The contests not only helped connect me to my teachers but also sustained my good grades.”
