Winners of the 2024 Louisville Library Teen Summer Writing Contest

For the second year in a row, Friends of Coal Creek partnered up with the Louisville Library to ask local teenagers how the creek inspires their creativity. With a prompt to produce writing “inspired by the textures of nature: treetops and soil-scapes, birdsong and bug-cry, shadow and light, native and new,” and to draw inspiration in a visit to Coal Creek, these writers approached the creek as both setting and muse. Here are this year’s winners chosen by the panel of judges.

First place (tie): Lack-A-Daisy by Vaamiki Satrasala
Judges comments: Lack-A Daisy is truly original writing from a unique literary voice, a compelling reflection inspired by details drawn from a creekside walk--slippery algae, minnows (“I could have sheltered 20 in my hand”), fins, bones, bark—out of which the author creates an equally compelling psychological landscape.
Read it

First place (tie): The Rushing Creek by Kaila Malunao
Judges comments: This charmingly narrated story takes us along the Coal Creek Trail we know and love, complete with the smell of horses and the surprise of fire-mitigating goats!  
Read it

Second place: The Loon’s Call by Jahnavi Barry
Judges comments: A wish, a dream, the call of a loon: this story charts the magical adventure of 5 friends who find themselves transported to a simpler place and time on a beloved lake—without parents!   “It might have been near-death hallucinations but I think a loon started to talk to me when I fell out of the canoe!”  Fast-paced, funny and fun (don’t miss the lily pad fight), The Loon’s Call reminds us of the value of friendship.
Read it

Third place: The Eye by Charlotte Seguin-Franklin
Judges comments: Despite family squabbles and ongoing tensions, this narrator pushes past the logistical challenges of getting (almost!) everyone out of the car, down the path, and into the cooling waters of the lake.
Read it