Students from Hays High won awards for the Hays Arts Council Poetry and Prose competition.

The competition consisted of entries for poetry and for prose. Both of those sections had grade based winners.

Seniors Alyssa Underwood and Johnny Fuller won awards in their age group for poetry. Underwood won second and Fuller won third.

Sophomore Alexis Pfannenstiel and freshman Gracie Wente also placed within their age group. Pfannenstiel and Wente both received an honorable mention.

Sophomores Kalyssa Boyle and Fernando Zarate won awards for their prose within their age group. Boyle won first and second place and Zarate won third.

The Creative Writing Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 5 at 1pm in the Ballroom of the FHSU Memorial Union.

Winner Fernando Zarate said he was excited and surprised.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect because I did not know what it was going to be judged on and how many entries there were, so I did not think I was going to place,” Zarate said. ‘It was exciting to found out I placed because I worked on my piece for a while because I had to keep changing it and fixing it until it was what I wanted.”

Each English teacher was allowed to submit 15 prose and 15 poetry pieces per section.

“I am thrilled that we did so well,” English instructor Lisa Renz said.

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