For the eighth consecutive year Colorado Academy is participating in an exciting literary celebration known as the Neustadt Litfest. Held annually in Norman, Oklahoma, on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, the event is sponsored by the renowned magazine World Literature Today, and features the awarding of two of literature’s most valued awards. The Neustadt prize, commonly known as “America’s Nobel,” is offered in rotation with the similarly prestigious NSK Prize for Children’s Literature.

 

The winner of this year’s NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature is Margarita Engle, a Cuban-American author of more than two dozen books for readers of all ages. For this prize, Engle was honored specifically for her contributions to Young Adult (YA) literature, including her recent memoir called Enchanted Air. An optimistic and inspiring person, Margarita Engle sees herself as someone who is “always writing about peace,” no matter what the chosen topic might be. She gravitates towards writing for young readers, because she “hopes to communicate with the future.”

 

So how does Colorado Academy connect to all of this?

 

Every year the CA English department includes the work of the chosen Neustadt author in appropriate courses and then sponsors a writing contest that in some way emulates the work of the author. The 12 entrants in this year’s contest were judged by the full department. Ultimately four Colorado Academy Freshmen—Campbell O’Neal, Kai Wang, Sadie Ward, and Madeleine Worrall—were selected to attend the ceremonies.

 

This year’s writing contest sprang from a challenging and compelling assignment that all Freshmen completed. After reading one of Engle’s books, The Firefly Letters, students wrote their own historically-based poems from multiple perspectives, just as Engle does in her book, which is set in 19th century Cuba.

 

The winners looked at events as diverse as the San Francisco fire of 1851, the Mount St. Helens volcano eruption, Amelia Earhart’s ill-fated last flight, and a convenience store robbery from contemporary news. All of them found ways to capture these events from three distinct perspectives and brought to life these characters in authentic ways. (We will make the students’ contest-winning poems available in a future Colorado Academy publication.)

 

This tradition of attending the Neustadt Litfest dates back to 2012 and is made possible due to a generous gift by CA parent Kathy Neustadt, mother of Tess Hankin (2016) and Josh Hankin. Since its inception this program has allowed 28 different CA students the chance to rub shoulders with talented writers from all over the globe.