Sarah Gold

Future Writers of America
April 24, 2008

The Junot Diazes of 2028 are already honing their literary skills in high schools around New York City. And I might have just read a short essay by one of them.

I’ve had the privilege (and it is a privilege) of serving as a judge in the memoir category of the Random House Inc. Creative Writing Competitioin for NYC Public High School Seniors, meticulously and enthusiastically organized by Random House’s Melanie Fallon-Houska. More than $100,000 in scholarship prizes will be awarded to the winners on June 9. (Above: pictures of last year's winners.)

Reading these brief memoirs opens a window onto a world I have no first-hand knowledge of. Actually, it opens windows onto many worlds: a number of these high school seniors are immigrants or children of immigrants from places as far-flung as China, India, Malaysia and Romania. For them, displacement and the sense of being an outsider heighten the usual adolescent amguish of  loneliness, self-doubt and the need to find one’s voice.

In reading the always moving, if not always polished, memoirs, it’s difficult not to be in awe of these youngsters for the struggles they have already come through and the wisdom they have acquired. Even those who are American-born seem mature for their age, certainly more insightful than I was at 17. 

There’s no irony here, no cynicism, no teenage relelliousness—but also no dull earnestness or naïveté. Some have experienced the early death or illness of a parent, others  have simply opened themselves to the world, to its sights and sounds,  and ponder their place within it--but they have learend perseverance, self-reflection, tolerance and forgive-ness.

Most delightfully for me, in several of these pieces, the prose soars, melding feeling and form, narrative and introspection, grace and wit, a love of words and a sense of linguistic playfulness.

Given the prevalene of doomsaying about the future of literacy in America, it’s wonderful to know that there are so many young people with a fierce determination to write—and several with a real talent that is already flowering.

The June 9  awards ceremony will take place at the French Institute, where I hope to meet and congratulate the Future Writers of America—the organization may exist only in my head, but its members are very real. Applications are being accepted: Do you have anyone to no minate?

At the competition Web site you can read, and hear, last year’s winniners.

What's in My Bookbag:  Russell Shorto’s Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason (Doubleday, Oct.). Following the 400-year-long trail of of the philosopher’s disinterred remains, Shorto considers whether odernity—rooted in reason, progress, the scientific method, individual rights, and (Shorto believes) under taatck from both right and left—has become irrelevant.

So tell me: What’s in your bookbag?

Also, thanks to PW’s associate art director, Ada Fung, for designing my adorably bulging bookbag. Fashionista, eat your heart out.

Posted by Sarah Gold on April 24, 2008 | Comments (2)