Madi East, a junior at Middle Creek High School, was the winner of Teen Ink's Mark Twain Award with her poem, “Stupid One-Sided Love.” Teen Ink is an online magazine that showcases writing, art, and photography by students ages 13 to 19. Madi was first presented with the opportunity to have her work published by Mr. Matteau, the Creative Writing teacher, and is now a regular user of Teen Ink with eight other works currently published on the site.
Madi describes her win as shocking. "It was definitely a poem that I just wrote for fun and had no intentions of doing anything with. I was very shocked that that poem in particular was chosen because it wasn't something I took very seriously and didn't think was going to get much recognition.”
She found her inspiration for the poem from one of her favorite books, The Selection. "In this book, a prince hosts a bachelor-type event to find a bride. The main protagonist, America, at one point in the story has gotten very close to the prince, but then because of her mistake, he chooses to make another girl in the competition his obvious first choice. This shatters America and was one of the most impactful scenes for me as I read it. I wanted to write a poem to convey the way America felt before she was hurt after seeing the prince with another girl."
To anyone who's considering publishing their work, she encourages them that even though it can be scary, they should take that leap of faith and put their work out there. "Publishing is something that you can put on resumes that will look good for colleges, but it's also something that could just be for fun. You could publish on something small like a local competition or a writing app like Wattpad if you just want to get your work out there or something larger like Teen Ink or a bigger publishing website if you want your work in a bigger environment. Publishing is very beneficial and fun to do, even if you're not in or haven’t taken a creative writing course.
Now, Madi continues to write at least one poem a week and is always publishing them and submitting them to other contests. Be sure to congratulate Madi the next time you see her!