Former Clayton student in “best young writers” anthology
Yue Pang, who graduated from Clayton High School in 2007, has an essay in “We Are Quiet We Are Loud: The Best Young Writers and Artists in America.”
To make the anthology, Yue’s essay was selected from among the thousands of winners of Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
She wrote about living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Her essay is called “The Deluge of VHS” and recalls monitoring the coming storm by watching an old family TV set. The family eventually leaves for St. Louis, where Yue had lived before:
“In St. Louis, I stay in a hotel for two weeks as we search for a new apartment. Every night, we turn to CNN, scouring for any sign of our neighborhood, if the floodwaters have started to drain yet. The frames shift between montages of wreckage and government incompetence.”
Congrats to Yue. For more info on the Scholastic awards, go to www.artandwriting.org
It’s nice to see someone sponsoring an award for student writing, especially when a student can win it with an essay. Writing essays seems to be a dying art form. If you check books like Writer’s Market, you will find that most literary magazines these days get plenty of poetry and short stories submitted; the only thing they want more of is quality essays. Congratulations, Yue! Keep at it.