It's amazing what power a poem holds.
Deana Freitas is glowing as if she was star-stricken by moonlight, to paraphrase the first two lines of her poem Moonlit Pond. The evocative 80-word work garnered the local high school student an honourable mention in this year’s edition of the Isabel Miller Young Writers Award.
The Writers' Guild of Alberta prize, named after the late Edmonton schoolteacher who was active with the guild, the Stroll of Poets and the Celebration of Women in the Arts, is designed to encourage Alberta's new talents between the ages of 12 and 18 into further developing their skills.
As far as Freitas is concerned, it's all water and sunshine that will nurture her garden of words to future fruition. She said she was thrilled to get the news.
“I was pretty excited,” she admitted. “When I first opened the email that they sent me, I jumped up and I hit my hand really hard on the desk. I was really excited to get it. It's really nice to know that my writing does have some merit to it.”
She's on her way to Grant MacEwan University's professional writing program where she hopes that a bachelor's degree in applied writing will help her further develop her skills both for personal and work purposes.
“Originally I was going to take journalism and then I thought about it more. I'd like to be able to write in any situation regardless of where it is.”
Whatever the situation might be, she will certainly fill it with gorgeous language. Moonlit Pond reads like a classical romantic poem with phrases that make me think that I must be surrounded by candles and the fragrance of many flowers. I loved her use of phrases like “the hyacinth dancing on the water's surface, or the koi who sing sweet streams of bubbles.”
This fresh honour was no shot in the dark. Freitas has oodles of experience to her credit as well. You can check out her blog at www.thelatenights.blogspot.com to see other poems and miscellaneous musings from this incredibly creative 17-year-old. She dabbles in visual arts as well, having participated in High Energy, the annual exhibit at Profiles Gallery that features works from students of all four St. Albert high schools.
Teenagers across the province were invited to submit poetry and fictional works. About 250 pieces were submitted, 50 of which were selected by a jury of professional writers to be part of WriTeen 2010 – the Isabel Miller Young Writers Award Anthology. That publication will be launched in September in conjunction with the award ceremony.
Other honourable mentions were given to St. Albert's Elle Glover and Brett Sheehan of Morinville. Stephanie Li of Edmonton won a first place finish for her work called What Comes Between. Details about the award, the anthology, the award ceremony and a full list of all winners can be found at www.writersguild.ab.ca or by calling the guild at 780-422-8174.
