Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts Reveals Winners of Writing The Wave: The 2023 New Works Creative Writing Competition

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced the winners of Writing The Wave: The 2023 New Works Creative Writing Competition, an annual creative writing contest open to all teens across Suffolk County as part of the ninth annual Title Wave: The 2023 New Works Festival at Bay Street Theater. The honorees were announced on stage, live at the festival on Friday evening prior to the kickoff of the weekend's New Works performances.

The Winners of Writing The Wave: The 2023 New Works Creative Writing Competition include:

1st Place: Jeremiah Watts and Andrew Salomon from North Babylon High School for their rap: Hate it or Love it
2nd Place: Isabelle Caplin from Pierson High School for the short story: Pressing a Flower
3rd Place: Sophie Rambelle from Eastport South Manor for spoken word: "I Would Never Go Back To Being 16"

Honorable Mentions were awarded to Lily Caplin of Pierson High School for the poem, Triptych of You; Viola Goodale of Pierson High School for poems World Now and Heartbeat of the Universe, and a song, I Can't Let it Be; as well as Tristan Sabbeth, of Pierson High School for the poem, The Tapestry of Life.

The Writing the Wave Creative Writing Competition finalists were judged by a panel of Best Selling and Award-Winning Authors including Emma Walton Hamilton, Theresa Trinder and Susan Verde.

"This year we were delighted to have so many varied entries for the competition; poetry, short stories, songs, spoken word, and our unanimous first-place winner happened to be a Rap Performance!" said Allen O'Reilly, Bay Street Theater's Director of Education & Community Outreach.

The competition is a tremendous opportunity for area teens to explore their passions as authors, poets, artists, songwriters, and playwrights, giving them a chance of having the opportunity to perform their piece in front of an audience on the Bay Street Theater stage.

Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center, which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.