By By JAMES COLLINS / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- Three Eastside Elementary students will become published poets with the upcoming printing of an anthology recognizing student talent.
Jack Webster,11, John Scantlen, 11, and Geornisha Brown, 10, were all recently selected to be a part of the 2004 edition of the Anthology of Poetry By Young Americans.
The anthology was developed 15 years ago to foster creative expression and recognize the talent of today's youth. It is a nationwide program receiving poem submissions from schools in all 50 states.
Eastside Special Education teacher Molly High received a letter from Anthology of Poetry Inc. in November that specified the requirements and the deadline for student submissions. High thought this was a great opportunity for her students to work on a poetry unit and had each student select one of their poems to submit.
Last week, the three students received letters in the mail indicating their poems had been selected to be included in the 2004 edition of the anthology.
High said she has been using a lot of letter writing projects this year including entering a Sports Illustrated writing contest, writing letters to the Chicago Bulls and most recently submitting poetry to Anthology of Poetry Inc.
The students did not hear back from Sports Illustrated and just received a few stickers from the Chicago Bulls, so they were extremely excited to receive letters acknowledging that their poems had been selected to be published.
Any style of poetry was acceptable for submission and one of the only requirements was that only one poem be sent in by each participating student.
Webster wrote a short poem about the importance of his grandmother, Scantlen's poem was a personal description poem and Brown wrote an acrostic poem describing the characteristics of an angel.
The 2004 edition of the Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans will go into print on March 31 and will be available for distribution sometime in August.