PVS students win in the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Two Pleasant View School students were awarded the Silver and Gold key for the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers in conjunction with the Middle Tennessee Writing Project.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization that identifies teenagers with exceptional artistic and literary talent and brings their remarkable work to a national audience through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Every year, the Alliance partners with more than 100 regional programs across the country to engage local communities. Students in grades seven through 12 can apply in 28 categories of art and writing for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published.

And this year in the Middle Tennessee Writing Project, Naisha Chowdhury and Yasmeen Mannan were awarded.

Chowdhury won the Silver key in the novel writing category. She wrote a novel called “When the Stripes Don’t Match” that she had written for class. It was a historical fiction that focused on the Memphis State Eight.

“It was pretty nice to win,” Chowdhury said.

Mannan won the Gold Key Award in the poetry category. Her poem “Tempestuous” was about being a Muslim woman in the United States.

She has written poems before but never found the confidence to show them. But then her mother convinced her to participate in the competition.

“My mom suggested I participate so I did,” Mannan said. “ I was pretty surprised to win.”

Chowdhury and Mannan will be recognized at an award ceremony at Middle Tennessee State University on Mar. 13. The national level competition results will be announced later in March.