Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish visits CM

Last month, nearly a hundred poets, storytellers and essayists vied for $500 in cash and prizes and for the pride of being celebrated as CM’s best writers in the annual Catholic Memorial “Picturing America” Writing Contest.

On January 20, the judges—bestselling novelist William Martin ‘67, former Boston Globe columnist Charles Kenney ’68 and Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish—revealed the winners at a ceremony in the CM Board Room.

Above: Poet Laureate Sam Cornish addresses the winners.
Click here to watch a video of the winners reading their work.

The winners: Eric Butts ’10 (1st place, poetry), Conor Leahy ’12 (2nd place, poetry), Ian Reeb ’10 (honorable mention, poetry), Ryan Hubbard ’12 (honorable mention, poetry); Dan Haley ’10 (1st place, non-fiction), Seungjae Lee ’12 (2nd place, non-fiction), Brendan MacNabb ’10 (honorable mention, non-fiction); Jon Lott ’10 (1st place, fiction), Ethan Madden ’11 (2nd place, fiction), and Sean Sweeney ’11 (honorable mention, fiction).

The winners read from their works, which were all inspired by one of two pieces of art installed at the school as part of the “Picturing America” series of art prints, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish emceed the awards ceremony. “You read so much, and sometimes your eyes can’t take anymore,” he said of judging poetry. “But then I opened up this pack, and there you were—it was a joy. It was a pleasure to read them. It was more difficult, however, to decide.”

“Sometimes, something just jumps right out and grabs you,” Cornish told the students, parents and faculty assembled, “as if the heart and the truth of the moment has found its way to the pen, to the keyboard and is on the page. And that’s what I experienced here.”

According to librarian Mrs. Magyar, who founded the contest last year, this year’s winners had some things in common. “Two characteristics—empathy and honest—came through in all these winning entries,” said Ms. Magyar. “These are qualities that all good writers share.”

City Councilor John Tobin ’87 addressed and congratulated the students as well. Tobin’s recalled to everyone the difficulties in installing the post of Poet Laureate and getting Mr. Cornish’s appointment passed. “Everyone thought it was crazy at the time,” said Tobin, “but I’ve had so many parents in the city thank me, because that is one of the ways many of their children express themselves.”