2017 Poetry Competition Winners
THE WINNERS ARE IN …
First, Friends of Falun Gong thanks all its poet participants. This contest was a great success as we received an abundance of submissions in both the adult and youth categories. Due to a low number of college level submissions, we decided to remove the college awards and judge all college applicants within the adult category. It was a delight to read so many touching and well-crafted poems. Our list of contest winners and honorable mentions are below, with easy, clickable links to the poems. We happily publish these poems today to help commemorate World Falun Dafa Day, 2017.
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ADULT AWARDS
1st Place – $500
Josh Lefkowitz, “A Poem of Fact”
2nd Place – $250
Kathleen Hellen, “Everyday Halloween”
3rd Place – $150
Lorna Davis, “Buyer’s Remorse”
4th Place – $100
5th Place– $75
Honorable Mentions | Adult
George Ian Thomas, “Trina’s Eyes Made Me See”
Amber Shreves, “There is Strength in Falun Gong”
Allegra Jostad Silberstein, “For the Falun Gong of China”
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HIGH SCHOOL AWARDS
1st Place – $100
Noah Hale, “To Faraway Friends”
2nd Place – $75
Angelique Clark, “The Calm Before the War”
3rd Place – $50
Kim Su Fowler, “For All That Love Is Worth”
Honorable Mentions | High School
Jessica Lecorchick, “Cloaked China”
Fiza Hasan, “The Abuse We Suffer”
Christina Knight, “The Story of Gao Rongrong”
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Contest Judges
Evan Mantyk, President of The Society of Classical Poets
Adam Miller, FoFG Editor
(with additional helpful eyes from the FoFG Editorial Staff)
Note from the Editors: most of these poems were written by poets who just recently learned about Falun Gong and the persecution. While we recognize and commend these poems as voices of support, they do not represent Falun Gong itself or even the views of FoFG as an organization. For a genuine understanding of the practice, one would have to explore the teachings at their very source.