Dalton News

Dalton School Senior Katie Hwang Wins 2021-22 Bennington College Young Writers Award

Senior Katie Hwang received a prestigious 2021-22 Bennington College Young Writers Award. These awards recognize outstanding literary achievements by high school students in the categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
This year, Bennington College received a record number of over 6,000 entries from students around the world, making Hwang's win all the more impressive. Read a poem from Katie's award-winning submission below. 
 
Congratulations to Katie and all the winners of the 2021-22 Bennington College Young Writers Awards!

We've included Katie's award-winning poem below

What moves the needle Katie Hwang

I ask my body what it wants
and it says power. Power, like Barry Bonds
in the summer of '01 lifting
rockets to a sky cracked
over the stadium like an egg.
Months on the juice in the mirror
he stared. Flexed,
veins popping.
Was he enthralled,
in that strange way
men worship forceful bodies?
I understand why he did it,
back swollen like the crowd sound
after the long ball,
growing thick, slow.
Mine is a body of water,
laps at its edges begging
space. Not to be more
than a man, just to have gravity:
love for my violence,
swinging to pry fences open.
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