The Telling Room Announces Grand Prize Winner of 2026 Statewide Writing Contest & County Winners

Albertina Dos Santos of Portland, Maine, is the grand prize winner of The Telling Room's 19th Annual Statewide Writing Contest! Dos Santos’ winning poem, "To Love a Country," was selected as the winner by a panel of judges that included local authors, illustrators, editors, Telling Room alumni, and current Telling Room students. Dos Santos will be published in our upcoming annual anthology of youth writing and will receive a cash prize of $250.

To love a country as if you’ve lost one:
2009, my mother left Angola
with sand in her shoes,
three children clinging like shadows to her skirt. The
air behind her smelled of charcoal and mangoes, the
air ahead bleach, bus fumes, and cold steel. Her
partner’s voice followed like thunder: low, constant,
crackling through every silence.

— Excerpt from "To Love a Country"

read "To Love a Country"

This year in total, The Telling Room received nearly 300 submissions of writing from youth ages six to eighteen hailing from fourteen of Maine's sixteen counties. The Telling Room will award a winner for each county, in addition to the grand prize. Each county winner will also be published in the upcoming anthology and receive a cash prize of $50.

Congratulations to our County Winners!

"To Take Action" by Hannah Spearrin of Lewiston (Androscoggin County)
"The Street That Raised Me" by Anonymous of Portland (Cumberland County)
"From Samosas to S'mores" by Shreya Hosur of Bar Harbor (Hancock County)
"Have You Seen Sofia?" by Nela Parker of Augusta (Kennebec County)
"Mirrors" by Lillian Shackelford of Appleton (Knox County)
"My Interlaced Hands" by Adley Cawthon of Alma (Lincoln County)
"Oh God, I Was Only Fifteen" by Khen Julia of South Paris (Oxford County)
"Across" by Elliott Spencer of Orono (Penobscot County)
"Mustard" by James Corbin of Dover-Foxcroft (Piscataquis County)
"Letter to the Reader" by Dynamite June of Bath (Sagadahoc County)
"Letter To My Texan Twin" by Paloma Killoran of Pittsfield (Somerset County)
"Waking Up" by Caroline Wisniewski of Belfast (Waldo County)
"The Island of Hope" by Knox Brown of Perry (Washington County)
"Transcendence" by Alice Devlin of Berwick (York County)

County Winners 2026

"To Take Action" by Hannah Spearrin (Androscoggin County)

There are children who know the sounds of bombs better than their own laughter. They carry the memories of home in their torn up pockets, memories that might not fit again.

"The Street That Raised Me" by Anonymous (Cumberland County)

I never thought I’d leave. Grant Street wasn’t just a road with a name slapped on a sign; it was a piece of me, a place that shaped who I was before I even realized it. The brick sidewalk, worn and uneven, carried the weight of my childhood.

"From Samosas to S'mores" by Shreya Hosur (Hancock County)

For as long as I can remember, I have lived as two people. One wears sneakers and speaks quickly in English, laughing too loudly in hallways and blending into classrooms. During lunch, she quietly throws away the idli and chutney her mom packed and trades for a slice of pizza or peanut butter sandwich so she doesn’t have to explain the smell.

"Have You Seen Sofia?" by Nela Parker (Kennebec County)

Two doors sat side by side on the row of houses, pale and sun-stained, with curved arches and little balconies of black iron that made them look almost like they belonged somewhere far away. Not in this noisy America.

"Mirrors" by Lillian Shackelford (Knox County)

5 hours a day,
5 days a week,
I stand in front of a mirror.
Studio lights buzzing,
cold marley under my bare feet,
glass waiting
like a judge who never blinks.

"My Interlaced Hands" by Adley Cawthon (Lincoln County)

break
the lake's surface
and I enter an underwater world.

"Oh God, I Was Only Fifteen" by Khen Julia (Oxford County)

Oh God, forgive the boy I used to be, the one who confused disobedience with liberty. The one who believed that the noise of his own confusion could be drowned in smoke and alcohol. I can still clearly recall that boy: fifteen, lost in a loving but insensitive home, and furious for reasons he could not identify.

"Across" by Elliott Spencer (Penobscot County)

I scramble to get as many things as I can into the box in front of me. The last box. They’re stacked against my wall, pushed next to each other in rows. There’s about five of them.

"Mustard" by James Corbin (Piscataquis County)

She sits and waits, while on her plate sits strong, delicious mustard.

He sits and knows her hunger grows; says he, “Just eat the mustard.”

While she waits, while hungry, says, “If you think that you know best, then come and eat my mustard.”

"Letter to the Reader" by Dynamite June (Sagadahoc County)

Dear Girl Reading Under the Lamp,

I am ever curious for you to turn the page and find a secret, an invitation, a whisper that carries music in the autumn wind. Your dreams are glittering, tenuous spiders’ threads.

"Letter To My Texan Twin" by Paloma Killoran (Somerset County)

Today I saw your smile in the sunset
Blooming over the snow you
Wouldn't call home.

"Waking Up" by Caroline Wisniewski (Waldo County)

My house normally wakes up around 5:30 am.

I don't mean it actually opens its eyes,

but it starts to come to life.

"The Island of Hope" by Knox Brown (Washington County)

In the beginning, there was darkness, and a bitter cold that would bite your tongue and gnaw on it. There was no light; there was no happiness, nor was there any scrap or piece of food to be spared. It was full of hatred and despair. Evil spirits filled the air. But in the dusk of it all, there was a boy called Hope.

"Transcendence" by Alice Devlin (York County)

Whatever life came before now, it seems to be only a series of blurred edges, constantly shifting memories, and an inability to know whether the words I think I’ve heard and the words I feel I’ve spoken have been a truth or rather a made-up image I’ve convinced myself of.

"To Love a Country" by Albertina Dos Santos (Grand Prize Winner)

To love a country as if you’ve lost one:

2009, my mother left Angola

with sand in her shoes,

three children clinging like shadows to her skirt.

The Telling RoomFebruary 26, 2026