PORTLAND — Molly Trainor, a student at John Bapst Memorial High School, is the grand prize winner of the 18th annual Statewide Writing Contest for the creative nonfiction essay “Survival of the Flawed.”

The grand prize winner receives publication in The Telling Room’s forthcoming annual anthology of youth writing, as well as a cash prize of $250, according to a news release from The Telling Room.

Molly Trainor Submitted photo

Trainor, a senior from Bangor, wrote “Survival of the Flawed” in an effort to succinctly capture the complex nature of existence as they know it.

“The idea for ‘Survival of the Flawed’ came from a place of frustration, truthfully. I wrote it throughout the course of a particularly difficult few weeks,” Trainor said. “It was an attempt to capture the ever-present feeling of defeat and anguish that can come with mental illness, as well as to reiterate a point that I am often trying to remind myself of, which is that I won’t get very far just by berating myself for not meeting my expectations of constant stability and perfection. In order to make it through the harder days, I need to be patient with myself, however difficult that may seem.”

Trainor’s essay was selected by a panel of 21 judges that included local authors, illustrators, editors, Telling Room alumni and Telling Room students. Participants in The Telling Room’s Publishing Workshop set the standards by which each piece of writing was judged and had the final say in selecting winners.

Ella Fenderson Submitted photo

Each fall The Telling Room encourages Maine youth to submit work to the annual contest, and this year received more than 330 submissions of creative writing. Youth shared poems, stories, and essays from all across Maine and The Telling Room received writing by youth in each of Maine’s 16 counties.

To recognize the wide geographic participation in this year’s contest, The Telling Room honored one writer from each of Maine’s counties as a county winner, in addition to the grand prize winner. Trainor’s piece was selected as both the contest’s grand prize winner and the Penobscot county winner.

Morgan McKay Submitted photo

Additional county winners include:

“To Be A Girl” by Ella Fenderson of Turner (Androscoggin County)

“The Walk Home” by M. L. Bell of Caribou (Aroostook County)

“After the Turtle Years” by Len Harrison of Brunswick (Cumberland County)

“The Legend” by Morgan McKay of New Sharon (Franklin County)

Denali Garson Submitted photo

“Watermelon Lemonade and Iced Tea” by Bronwyn Wachter of Blue Hill (Hancock County)

“Thinking” by Denali Garson of West Gardiner (Kennebec County)

“Granite Timbre” by Cameron Pinchbeck of Hope (Knox County)

“Patterns: An Abecedarian” by Lucie Hollon of Southport (Lincoln County)

“The Essence of Spring” by Dylan van Buren of Bethel (Oxford County)

“Can you hear it in the silence?” by Abby Burgess of Sangerville (Piscataquis County)

Dylan van Buren Submitted photo

“Sub-zero” by Dynamite June of Bath (Sagadahoc County)

“Identity Auditions” by Paloma Killoran of Pittsfield (Somerset County)

Paloma Killoran Submitted photo

“Me and My Introversion” by Annette McCue Hafford of Belfast (Waldo County)

“Humanity’s Playground” by Charlie Rayford of Vanceboro (Washington County)

“Sleepwalking” by Makili Matty of Kittery (York County)

To learn about each county winner and read their submissions, visit tellingroom.org.

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