This October, The Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum held its 26th Annual Poetry Contest in honor of Anne Spencer, an American poet who lived in Lynchburg for most of her life. The Anne Spencer Poetry Contest is held annually and is open to all LCS K-12 children who submit their original poetry to The Anne Spencer Memorial Foundation. This year, students entered the contest in three age categories: Kindergarten through third grade; fourth through eighth grade; and ninth through twelfth grade. Fifteen finalists were selected from the three categories based on their written poetry submissions. On the evening of November 9, 2017, the 15 finalists competed in front of a live audience at Dunbar Middle School for Innovation. Winners were selected by a panel of judges based on their poetry and performances. All the finalists who performed their poetry were awarded a book about Anne Spencer and a medal.
The winners of the contest in each category were:
Kindergarten–3rd Grade
Karter Woody - “Hunter” (Grade 3, Robert S. Payne Elementary School)
4th–8th Grade
Haley Piercy - “The Magazine” (Grade 6, Linkhorne Middle School)
9th–12th Grade
(Tie) Desiree Younger - "An Intelligent Black Girl" (Grade 9, Heritage High School) and
Bethany Waller - "The girl in the corner" (Grade 12, Heritage High School)