Watch your back Colleen McCullough! Vienna native Emma Hastings writes with amazing maturity about an early Roman general grappling for power while juggling the demands of fatherhood. And she’s only fifteen years old. Despite her young age, Emma’s writing is already garnering national attention. An excerpt of her short story “The Rise of Caligula” was included in On the Subject of Walruses: DC’s Best Teen Writing after being awarded a Gold Key on the regional level. She was also awarded a Gold Medal on the national level by The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her science-fiction short story. The Scholastic Awards is the country’s largest, longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens.

Emma is currently a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School. She was one of 13 students from Greater Washington who were honored as National Medalists through The Scholastic Awards. National Medals are awarded to the top 1% of short stories, plays, poetry, and essays chosen from over 200,000 submissions nationwide. Over 850 teens, including Emma, travelled to New York City on Friday, June 1st where they were commended in the National Awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall. There they shared the stage with well-known illustrator and Awards alumnus Edward Sorel and were congratulated by surprise guest speaker Meryl Streep. Streep spoke about the demands, but also the rewards, of pursuing your artistic dreams.

Before being named National Medalists, teens participate first on the regional level.  This year in Greater Washington, 225 teen writers earned recognition on the regional level of the competition. These teens were honored at the DC Regional Scholastic Writing Awards Ceremony on Thursday, March 15 at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre. The Scholastic Awards are administered in the DC-Metro area by Writopia Lab, which holds creative writing workshops year-round in Tenleytown, DC; Alexandria, VA; and Rockville, MD.

Writopia Lab is a non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing a growing community of young writers. At Writopia Lab, writers ages 8-18 gather in small peer groups to work with published writers on their own short stories, memoirs, and plays.  For the each of the past five years, Writopia Lab writers have earned more recognition in the Scholastic Writing Awards on both the regional and national level than any other group of students in the country.  

For more information about The Scholastic Writing Awards in Greater Washington or about Writopia Lab, please contact Kathy Crutcher at kathy@writopialab.org or 202-629-9510.