April 21, 1998
Contact:
Press Contact: Craig D¹Ooge (202) 707-9189
Robert Hass to Present Student "River of Words" Poetry and Art Awards
On May 2, the Center for the Book, in cooperation with
the International Rivers Network, will host the 1998 student
winners of the "River of Words" national environmental
poetry and art contest for young people. At 3 p.m. in the
Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison
Memorial Building, project co-founder and former U.S. Poet
Laureate (1995-1997) Robert Hass will present the awards to
the eight national winners and the one international winner.
He also will moderate a program that will include poetry
readings by the winning students. The winning works of art
also will be on display. The event is free and open to the
public.
Thousands of schoolchildren from seven countries and
nearly every U.S. state participated in the contest, which
seeks to help children discover their "ecological address"
by exploring and interpreting their local watersheds or
natural landscapes. "Our goal is to help children become
keen observers of the place where they live to help them
develop a sense of belonging and kinship--in order to become
informed and active citizens as they grow up," said project
director and co-founder Pamela Michael of the International
River¹s Network.
Announcing the winners at an April 19 program at the
San Francisco Public Library, Robert Hass said, "I think
it's important to have kids understand that part of their
education is an informed knowledge of the place where they
live. We're going to need a sense of hope and power if
we're going to take care of this land in the next century."
Mr. Hass chose the winning poems; artwork was judged by
Germaine Juneau, Director of the International Children's
Art Museum in San Francisco.
The National Poetry Grand Prize winners are: Noah
Frank (grade 2), San Francisco; Tyler Sellers (grade 3),
Vicksburg, Miss.; Todd Detter (grade 9), Phoenix; and
Rebecca Givens (grade 11), Atlanta. The National Art
Contest winners are: Alex Schneble (grade 2), Issaquah,
Wash.; Holly Heuer (grade 5), Los Olivos, Calif.; Jennifer
Brisson (grade 8), Clarkton, N.C.; and Kristina Fisher
(grade 12), Santa Fe, N.M. The 1998 International Grand
Prize winner is Jeff Hwang (grade 8), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Center for the Book sponsors the "River of Words"
project in support of its mission of stimulating public
interest in books, reading, and the printed word. For
information about the center visit its Web site at:
http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/.
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PR 98-065
4/21/98
ISSN 0731-3527