School District Five student named finalist for South Carolina High School writing contest
April 23, 2018
Spring Hill High School senior Braden Holst has been named a finalist in the fifth South Carolina High School writing contest. The topic for the contest was “How can we make South Carolina better?”
“These students are our future leaders, and it’s important to understand their viewpoints,” said Steven Lynn, dean of the South Carolina Honors College and founder of the contest. “They could have solutions—or the seeds to solutions—to the problems we are facing now and in the future.”
Holst and the other students who participated respond in the genre of their choice—poetry, fiction, essay, drama, letter—within a maximum of 750 words. The contest is open to juniors and seniors in public, private and home schools. Writings by the finalists will be included in an anthology published by the South Carolina Honors College.
Nationally recognized poet Sam Amadon, an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of South Carolina, will judge this year’s contest. Amadon is the author of “Like a Sea,” winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, and “The Hartford Book,” winner of the Believer Poetry Book Award. His poems have appeared in “American Poetry Review,” “Boston Review,” “The New Yorker” and elsewhere.
First-place winner will receive $1,000 and the Walter Edgar Award, funded by SCHC alumnus Thad Westbrook and named for his professor, a South Carolina historian and writer. The second-place winner will receive $500 and the Dorothy Skelton Williams Award, funded by an anonymous donor and named for the late upstate public school educator. The third-place winner will receive $250.
Winners will be announced mid-summer.
“Braden is an exceptional English student. He has both original story ideas and the craft to execute those ideas through writing,” said Sarah Gams, Spring Hill High English department head and Braden’s teacher. “His plots, characters and themes are unique, often optimistic, and thought-provoking. I always look forward to reading his work.”
Braden Hoist
