For Immediate Release —May 20, 2009
Contact:
David Irwin
Media Relations Manager
(585) 245-5516
irwin@geneseo.edu

SUNY Geneseo to Recognize Winners of Area Peace Poetry Contest

GENESEO, N.Y. -- The State University of New York at Geneseo’s Department of English will recognize the winners of its 4^th Annual Genesee Valley Peace Poetry Contest May 21 at 7 p.m. in the Alice Austin Theatre in the college’s Brodie Hall.  The department sponsors the contest for kindergarten through 8^th grade students from numerous area school districts in the Genesee Valley.  Sixty-nine winners were selected from more than 500 entrants this year.  The winners have been invited to read their poems at the event, which is free and open to the public.

“The goal of the contest is to give students the opportunity to reflect creatively on the theme of peace at a time when so much of what they encounter in the media is dominated by images of violence,” said Rob Doggett, associate professor of English and faculty coordinator for the contest. 

Creative writing students from the college selected first-place awards in three grade categories:  kindergarten - 2^nd grades; 3^rd – 5^th grades; and 6^th – 8^th grades, according to Alaina McDermott, a graduating senior at Geneseo and student coordinator of the contest.  “These overall winners will receive additional recognition, but all winners will receive a certificate and have their poems published in a small booklet that will be available to the students and their families,” she said.