The Merrill Contest: An EHS Tradition Continues

The Merrill Contest: An EHS Tradition Continues

The Merrill Writing Contest has become an annual tradition at Exeter High School, and just barely was able to continue this year. The contest is run by the English department here at EHS and allows students to submit their fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to be judged. In addition to this, students don’t need to worry about personal judgment, as all submissions are judged anonymously. The parameters for the contest are wonderfully broad, nonfiction being anything from essays to memoirs, while fiction can be any kind of short story, and poetry includes any type of poem. The winners receive prizes for their hard work as well. 

Last year I submitted work in poetry and nonfiction, with my poem winning first place. This year, I was excited to submit my work again, having written enough to submit one piece in each category. I was looking forward to seeing if I would be able to rank highly again, but my heart dropped when I found out that it might not be happening this year.

The contest needs a certain number of submissions in order to run, which it had not met by Wednesday, March 27, the day before the deadline. My English teacher urged every student who was comfortable with submitting something to do so in hopes of gaining enough submissions for the contest to happen. 

Having a writing contest at our school is so important. It encourages students who don’t write much to give it a try, and students who do to expand their range. I personally had never tried my hand at writing a short story that I was happy with before applying for the contest. None of them seemed complete to me, so I gave up on writing short stories altogether. I felt as though I needed more room than I had to fully tell the story I wanted to. Regardless, the contest inspired me to try to create something, and I ended up loving what I wrote enough to feel confident in submitting it. Writing something new can be fun and exciting, and it’s important that we have a contest at our school to encourage that.

Thankfully, there were enough last-minute submissions for the contest to go on! I am relieved and excited for this tradition to be able to continue at EHS. The winners will be announced prior to April break. I’m looking forward to seeing who wins, and I wish luck to all who submitted their work. I’d also like to thank everyone who submitted a piece. It can be scary to share your writing, especially if you’re trying something new like I did. But because you submitted something, the contest was able to happen. Thank you to the English department, as well, for holding this contest every year despite the uncertainty that came this time around. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even have this contest at all.