Amazing results at the „Swiss Creative Writing Prize“ competition 2022 and 2023

Students of the  Advanced Creative Writing Class dominate the »Swiss Creative Writing Prize« competition in 2022 as well as 2023

As the results of the „Swiss Creative Writing Prize“ are only published after we honour our students at a special event in May, we would also like to honour the students of the Advanced Creative Writing Class of 2022, who took part in the national competition in 2022, as well as the students who made it onto the 2023 shortlist this year and received a prize:

Swiss Creative Writing Prize for Short Stories 2022
3^rd place: Jil Hug (former G3C, now G4C) for her short story »Radio Silence«.

Swiss Creative Writing Prize for Poetry 2022
2^nd place: Carole Meier (former G2C, now G3C) for her poem »Nothing Left«.

Shortlisted: Vrinda Arora (former G2A, now G3A) und Sulamith Tamborriello (former G4A)

On April 27^th, 2023 the Shortlist 2023 was published. Of all the short stories and poems submitted, twenty were selected, ten each for the Short Story Prize and ten for the Poetry Prize. The twenty young authors were allowed to take part in a workshop in Lucerne and the final award ceremony as they were considered possible winners of the Swiss Creative Writing Prize 2023. Five of them, meaning a quarter fourth of the shortlist, are KSWE students. No other school in Switzerland has so many students on the shortlist (only two other schools were able to place two students each on the shortlist, these are Hofwil and Olten). Congratulations to the students for this wonderful result. Shortlisted are:

Short Story Prize 2023 Shortlist
Jil Hug (G4C), Strawberry Fields Forever
Carole Meier (G3C), Did We Do It?

Poetry Prize 2023 Shortlist
Leonie Haag (G2I), Greatest Sin
Nienke Nachtegaal (G4B), Lion
Vrinda Arora (G3A), The Galaxy Within Me

At the final award ceremony, Jil Hug (G4C) won the 3^rd prize for the second time in a row, this year for her short story  Strawberry Fields Forever.

A Workshop with Sarah Maria Griffin, November 2022

How vital is it to not only see, but to unpack, intuit and practice divination? The marrying of visual

literacy, imagination and intellect is of utmost importance in a world where we are bombarded with

images ad infinitum. With the renowned Irish writer Sarah Maria Griffin, the students at KSWE got to

delve into the Tarot, semiotics and Dixit dissection, moving beyond cliché and into the realm of the

extended metaphor. For two hours students got to think and write beyond the literal and to couch

real-life concerns in fantastical garb. Being at the mercy of global vagaries we are in need, now more

than ever, of the strange and otherworldly to sustain us by elucidating the messiness of being alive

in a refreshing and provocative manner.

 

Speculative fiction encourages escape. But it can also reinvigorate tired limbs. Galvanizing us into

agency once more. Sarah Maria Griffin was able to disarm the students, bolster them with the

freedom of privacy and invite them into the power of the weird and wonderful. She taught us how

Science-Fiction can equip us with discernment to avoid falling for a panem et circenses form of

superficial sustenance. Ultimately, Sarah Maria Griffin taught us that decoding and questioning

enable us to reflect on what kind of present we inhabit and what type of future we hope to build.

 

Having other dimensions of existence allow us to retreat momentarily while still being connected.

Why limit reality to the parameters of the logical mind? The congruence of singularity and

interconnectedness is housed perfectly in the Gaelic word Tonn. The word means both a single wave

and the entire ocean simultaneously. Sci-Fi encapsulates this paradox superbly, helping us to

recalibrate our gaze by showing us how intertwined and unique we all are. Hopefully this is enough

to engender empathy for ourselves and the world we call home. So, let’s build by decoding. Let’s

find comfort in creation and develop a deeper understanding of humankind by embracing the

surreal.

 

Text: NeO

Welcome to the English Department!

Last Autumn, we had the joy to welcome two new teachers in our department – it’s been a pleasure to work with them, and we wanted to introduce the newcomers in their own words.

Scott Loren is an instructor in English Studies at the Kantonsschule Wettingen, where he also contributes to area studies for Digital Society and Media. He has BA, MA and PhD degrees in English Literature and Language Studies, with subsidiary studies in Psychology and Art History. When not busy consuming culture, he enjoys outdoor activities. A Swiss-American dual national, Scott lives with his family in Zurich.

James Violette (He/Him) joins our English squad after a decade of teaching in various roles at a wide variety of schools in German-speaking Europe. He grew up in Maine (USA) and has lived in Switzerland since 2013. His interests in the English classroom include surprising students with plot twists as well as examining power structures and marginalization. Additionally, he contributes to our History department and IB team. Outside of school you can find him with his partner and their two boys, probably chasing a frisbee or cooking something delicious.

 

The Night of Reading 2022 and Advanced Creative Writing at Kantonsschule Wettingen

To wrap up this year of stories, poems and drafts yet to finish, the students of the Advanced Creative Writing course had the wonderful opportunity to get together for a laid-back night of reading our own texts and enjoying a snack. After a break of two years, on the 27th of April, our school’s lovely assembly hall (Aula) was once again open to friends, family, and to anyone with a knack for writing to come and listen to the fourteen Advanced Creative Writing students presenting their texts in this year’s Night of Reading.

With the help of our teacher and editor, Ms Sara D. Nyffenegger, we spent this year crafting our texts, sometimes – although very hesitantly – even sharing them with our peers. Events like this give many young writers the opportunity to present and perform what they have worked hard to create. Putting your thoughts into words can be a very personal thing, so, to many of us reading them out loud can be a very gratifying but also an exhilarating occasion. Especially with regards to the prompts of the Swiss Creative Writing Prize which we received for the 2022 competition. Starting in December up until the very beginning of April we put our heads down to brainstorm and come up with poems about identity and short stories based on the word offline. Each year the Advanced Creative Writing course at KWSE steps up to the challenge and submits many wonderful and successful texts to the competition.

This year’s audience had the pleasure to listen to prize winning stories and poems, such as the poems of last year’s winner, Imè Esenam (G3A). She not only won 1^st prize for her poem Black coffee or To all the girls with hard to swallow names, but also claimed 2^nd prize with To be black, to be woman. Jil Hug (G3C) got to read her short story Trapeze Act, which was short listed in 2021, as well as a new story, Radio Silence, with which she reached 3^rd place in this year’s competition. The school also placed well in the poetry section this year, as Carole Meier took home the 2^nd prize for her poem Nothing Left, and both Vrinda Arora (G2A) and Sulamith Tamborriello (G4A) were short-listed. The night was a success and after an hour of listening to different genres of writing, the evening came to a close with lively chatting and engaging discussions accompanied by a tasty apéro riche.

We were excited to welcome everyone back to our campus this year after the pandemic and are already looking forward and working towards getting to invite you again to next year’s Night of Reading.

(Text: Carole Meier, G2C / Photo: Sara Nyffenegger)

 

Black coffee or To all the girls with hard to swallow names by Imè Esenam

(1^st place at the Swiss Creative Writing Prize Competition, Poetry, 2021)

 

To all the girls with hard to swallow names

The names we never find on water bottles and coffee cups,

The names people shake their heads at

The names that so quickly turn into a joke like they have no worth

The names they don’t even try to pronounce

And in exchange turn it to whatever they want

The names that go from Chimamanda to Mandy or Consuela to Ella

Like black coffee diluted with sugar and cream to Starbucks lattes,

So, they can bare to swallow it whole

The ones that get called complicated and dismissed

When asking to be called by their names that are gifts

And in return say sorry

The ones that now have apologies for names

 

Your name might not be a Starbucks latte, that teenage girls down so easily

But it’s black coffee, one so strong people shy away from it,

Never getting rewarded with its richness

Your name holds power in every drop

The very drops your ancestors prayed for

So don’t apologise for your name, when its meaning has saved so many before

Don’t dumb it down so it fits the shackless of society

It’s the only gift you’ll get without being expected to return the favour

Although you are much more than your name

It’s your crown so wear it with pride

Wear it high and don’t let anyone take away its shine

It’s not being complicated, it’s called having self-respect

So, if you didn’t offer it with sugar and cream, don’t accept it when they add their own

Or simply said ‘say it right or don’t say it at all’

 

Nothing Left by Carole Meier

(2^nd place at the Swiss Creative Writing Prize Competition, Poetry, 2022)

 

Smaller and smaller was the goal.

To have Control.

No matter what toll it took on me,

I wanted to be pretty.

This idiotically simple thought

God, all it brought was pain

I never meant to change what’s on the inside,

To keep what made me Me,

Only to change what Others see.

Watch me get destroyed by this impossible task

I thought becoming popular could fill this void

But to bask in such glory just wasn’t for me

Childish dreams

So dumb and naïve

 

People ask who you are

But who are we to say how anyone should be

I thought I liked who I was, so why did no one agree

They’d never see the one I liked, truly, myself

I want this to stop

I want it to end

Shelf my needs, be strong now, pretend

Act as they do

Dress like they dress

Eat what they eat

No Extras

No Flaws

No Comments, just peace

So instead of wearing this face proudly as mine

I chose the path of least resistance, to hide.

A hollow mask I slipped behind,

But an empty stomach, an empty mind.

 

At first it filled me with pride, what I had made.

Discipline made me feel full ‘til it was too late.

So as the color of my skin started to fade

And counting and comparing took a hold,

As my world steadily went bleak and cold,

I realized what kind of person I’d become.

My emotions boiled down and my mind went numb.

What I used to love so much before,

Suddenly, none of it even mattered anymore.

It all went away

All out of my Control

 

Being low made me feel high

Piece by piece I replaced reason with a Lie

I’ve seen the statistics, I know I could die

But it’s just so hard to let go you know

It had so much patience, it started so slow

The Routine, it took root

And those tiny Restrictions still looked so cute

It’s simple, just a little bit less each time

And resign to my thoughts no longer being mine

Over time It even becomes less and less of a crime

 

For a long time now who i see is not me

As a child i had a clear Image of who i wanted to be

i Imagined this Person of divine Beauty and Grace

I don’t recognize this Face

What the mirror shows has changed

Closer to what i Wanted, but somewhat estranged

Deranged, Who i see is no longer me

 

Hollow cheeks

Hollow eyes

Hollow soul

The Hollowness took me,

It swallowed me whole

It ate me up, left nothing in my place

An empty Shell

and of me?

No longer a trace

Swiss Creative Writing Prize Results Revealed: KSWE Students Dominated the Competition

Members of the Advance Creative Writing class at KSWE submitted their short stories and poems to the Swiss Creative Writing Prize competition with great success.

Poetry prize: we’re especially proud of Imè Esenam (G2A), who not only won 1st Prize for her poem Black coffee or To all the girls with hard to swallow names but also claimed the 2nd Prize with To be black, to be woman. This has never happened before at the competition, and as all the poems and short stories were judged anonymously, it came to light only after the judge returned her selection. The following students were also shortlisted (in no particular order): Carla Honold (G4A) for two of her poems, Lying and Rite of passage — a sonnet, and Lilly-May Stutz (G4A) for her poem The Pilot.

The following student were short listed for the short story prize (in no particular order): Salome Bachmann (G4A), Christmas Crisis, Enya Fritschy (G4A), My Memory Update, Jil Hug (G2C), Trapeze Act.

 

One of the prize judges wrote the following when returning her results:

“One of the hardest things about writing, for me, is showing other people my work. It’s exposing and daunting to open yourself up to the criticism (and even the praise) that may follow. So first of all I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who entered this competition. It’s brave of you to write, brave to put yourself out there and be willing to be judged by others.”

 

We congratulate all the students who continually submit their work and strive to improve their writing.

Swiss Creative Writing Prize

The annual creative writing competition for high school students is coming up soon. Several students of the Advanced Creative Writing course will submit their work, but the competition is open to all. Submissions will be accepted up until April 2^nd, 2021. One can submit a short story (max. 1000 words) focusing on the topic of “family” and/or up to two poems (line limit: max 40 verses) exploring the idea of “connection”. Maybe spring will inspire some of you to write! You can find all necessary information on the Swiss Creative Writing Prize website.

Regional Competition „Jugend debattiert“

On Wednesday, March 17th 2021, there will be a regional competition as part of „Jugend debattiert Aargau“. Our school has a team of debaters, who will be participating in this event.
If you’d like to join the debate team, you can send an e-mail to Sara Nyffenegger.
Good luck to all the debaters!

Carla Honold (G4A) Wins Third Prize with Her Poem „Distance“

At the Swiss Creative Writing Prize competition 2020 this Spring, Carla Honold (G4A, then G3A), a member of the Advanced Creative Writing class at KSWE, received the third prize in the category „Poetry“ with her poem „Distance“. We congratulate her and encourage students to participate in competitions in their respective fields of interest to meet like-minded peers and to network.

Congratulations to Nina Moser and Christa Schönfelder

Several KSWE Matura papers were nominated  by Aargauische Kulturstiftung Pro Argovia, Naturforschende Gesellschaft and the Historische Gesellschaft des Kanton Aargau as best Matura theses written in the state of Argovia in 2020. One of these papers, namely Nina Moser’s „Zwanghaft. Wie die Zwangsstörung mein Leben übernahm. Autobiographische Fragmente“ won one of the five coveted awards on May 29th 2020. We congratulate her but also her supervisor, Dr. Christa Schönfelder, who is a member of the English Department at KSWE.

Remote Classroom Supported by Shakespeare’s Globe

„Shakespeare’s Globe has unveiled a programme of work to take place while its building is closed, including a new digital series, free on-demand productions and educational content for home schooling.

Digital content made available for audiences will comprise a series of Shakespeare performances, recorded in isolation by artists including Sandi and Jenifer Toksvig and Kathryn Hunter, and a programme of free-to-watch productions via the theatre’s on-demand platform, Globe Player.“ (The Stage)

The programme is available on the Globe’s website. Go have a look and enjoy!