Lathan Vargason. Self-Portrait. Age 18, from Lewisport, KY.

This summer we urged you to Start.Write.Now and stay creative all summer long—and you did yourself proud! Invited to share your out-of-school bursts of creativity with us, dozens of you sent poems, essays, stories, photos of sculptures, design projects and paintings. Thanks, teen artists and writers! It seems like the hot weather brought out the best in you. We hope that these samples of summer writing and artwork will inspire you to submit your own original efforts to the 2013 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Be sure to also check out all the categories, artists, and writers we featured this summer. Your journey starts here.

Three of Hannah Jones’ books, which she co-wrote with Danielle Bennett

Hannah Jones (aka Jaida Jones) earned a Scholastic Portfolio Gold Award in 2004. She has published four fantasy books, Havemercy, Shadow Magic, Dragon Soul, and Steelhands, as well as a collection of her poetry entitled Cinquefoil—all garnering critical acclaim. And she’s done all this by the age of 26!

We recently had a chance to chat with Hannah to learn more about her love for reading and writing fantasy. She also provided us with some great advice for all the young fantasy writers out there. Check it out!

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
The first time I read a good book and it ended. I don’t cope well with separation.

What do you like about the fantasy genre? What opportunities does it afford you as a writer that you don’t have when writing “realistic” fiction?
One of the assignments I remember vividly from a college writing workshop was as follows: all the assembled students were given a first line to write a short in-class piece of fiction over the course of fifteen minutes. The first line was ‘She looked at the dinosaur in the room.’ After fifteen minutes, we went around the room reading our pieces out loud. All the dinosaurs in the room had been metaphors–for old men, for difficult situations, for people they no longer wanted to be with, obsolete lovers and childhood friends. My dinosaur was a dinosaur. It spoke. Read More

Left to right: Vince Stango, COO of the National Constitution Center; Carter Jimenez-Jenkins; Rebecca Rutherfurd, Sr. Manager of National Programs at the Alliance

Last week was a busy week for Carter Jimenez-Jenkins. But it’s always a busy week, it seems.

On Monday, September 17, he and his mom flew to Philadelphia to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution at the National Constitution Center. He is patriotic, but that’s not why he attended the special ceremony commemorating the addition of an essay about influential American and former first lady Betty Ford to the American National Tree exhibit. Carter flew from coast-to-coast because he wrote the essay about Ms. Ford, which earned him a $1,000 scholarship and the 2012 M.R. Robinson National Constitution Center American National Tree Award! You can read the essay here.

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, created in 1935

Guest post by Katie Babick, Senior Editor of Scholastic Art Magazine

Although I am not an architect, I love to look at the buildings around me – and living in New York City, there are plenty to look at! Architecture is as much about the time and place it was built as the people who use it every day. Architecture can be about order like the classical buildings of Rome, about utility like the cold, sleek buildings of the Bauhaus, about fitting carefully into the landscape like Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic Fallingwater, or countless other styles.

How to Begin
Unlike drawing or painting, architecture can be a daunting medium. It seems like you need a lot more than a pencil or paintbrush to create a building that is interesting to look at and structurally sound. Luckily, you can begin to learn about architecture just by looking around you. The best way to develop your own style as an architect is to look at the buildings you see around you, then build on what you like (pun intended!). Read More

Megan Schmunk. Discomfort. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Printmaking.

Guest post by Alliance staffer Courtney Buckland, Project Coordinator

While he was in high school, my brother made so many beautiful woodblock prints. I was always envious that he experimented with so many different mediums, and I stuck to the safe route with my pens, pencils and paintbrushes. He created such detailed, intricate images. They were truly incredible works of art, and thinking of them now, I would love to have them framed and hanging on my walls.

Engraving goes back to cave art, created by using stones, bones, and cave walls. In elementary school we experimented with printmaking by carving designs into apples, dipping them in ink, and then stamping them onto paper. Even a rubber stamp could be considered a printmaking tool. Pablo Picasso made more than 1,000 prints including etchings, engravings, drypoints, woodcuts, lithographs and linocuts. In 2012, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards received almost 800 printmaking submissions! Read More

Victoria Wirkijowski. Nowhere Man. Grade 8, Age 13. 2012 Gold Medal, Digital Art.

Choosing your words carefully is a serious business, but the outcome can be funny! If it’s a piece by seasoned flash-fiction writer Stefanie Freele you can be sure it will be, above all, real and relatable. Read on and see how deftly Freele uses details to make it so in just 522 words!

Every Girl Has An Ex Named Steve

We tell her not to date a man in a banana suit. A boy really. She’s young and doesn’t know any better, but dang, we wish she’d listen to our advice. We’re years older, we’ve been through it all, we know better. We tell her this on her bed, us six sisters, us six girls, quietly, so Dad doesn’t hear. If he only knew his youngest, his homeschooled, his oops from a second marriage had the hotsies over a banana.

We’re not going to tell him.
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