Freshman Elsa Ray was recently recognized as a regional Gold Key and national Gold Medal winner in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards for her historical fiction novel, The Mask.

Ray independently chose to enter the competition as one of approximately 300,000 other entries from students around America.

“I first decided to sign up for the contest as an art student upon seeing advertisements for it in the art classrooms,” Ray said.

“I have been interested in writing for a long time,” Ray said. “I’m also a huge reader which goes hand in hand with writing.”

Ray started her 14,825 word novel during the spring of eighth grade for a school free write and finished it in December.

The National Arts and Writing Awards include 29 different categories of art and writing to recognize exceptional works by students in grades 7-12.

“I guess what prompted me to sign up for the event and to submit my writing was the idea of testing myself against hundreds of other writers my age across the country,” Ray said.

“I just wanted to see how my ideas and storytelling would compare to others,” Ray said. “I’m excited to get a chance to read other award-winning stories and hopefully learn from the other writers as well.”

According to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards site, the organization awards  $250,000 in scholarships as well as opportunities to be published in the National Catalog, the Best Teen Writing, The Best Young Writers and Artists in America, Scope magazine, Junior Scholastic magazine, Scholastic Art magazine and New York Times Upfront magazine.

“I didn’t realize how prestigious the contest was until later,” Ray said. “The funny thing is that I turned in my piece right at the deadline; I didn’t think it [my writing] was even submitted.”

Ray won a Gold Key award along with a Gold Medal award. A Gold Key designates the very best work submitted to local programs. They are automatically considered for national-level recognition. A Gold Medal is awarded to the most outstanding works in the nation.

“I didn’t always dream of winning an award for writing,” Ray said. “But it’s incredibly awesome to be recognized for something that I love to do and to be compared to others at a national level.”

Ray attended the awards ceremony and workshop in New York City on June 1-3.

“I think writing, especially storytelling, is really cool,” Ray said. “You can shape the characters and their stories however you want, but it’s even cooler when they take on lives of their own.”

“With the story I submitted, once I had really solidified the characters I felt like they were the ones telling me the story and I was just pressing buttons on a keyboard,” Ray said.

Rey’s novel is split into six different sections, with each set in a different era of the last century. The Mask centers around a pretty masquerade mask, and how the mask passes through the hands of different people as they experience major world events.

The mask is made in Venice in 1897. As time carries on, it passes through the hands of those who were alive at the start of World War One, all the way to the equal rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. As Ray explained, “The story can continue forever.”

Ray hopes that her writing abilities can soon help other students in the future improve their writing as well.

“I’m taking part in the Algonquin Writing Lab which opens next year,” Ray said. “It’s where students who are strong writers will give writing advice and help to anybody with any type of issue, so it’s good to pick up new skills and techniques from people I might meet in New York City.”

Excerpt from Ray’s The Mask:

 ~Boston, 1970~
With a screech of rusty hinges, the lid of the chest creaked open.  A mushroom cloud of dust rose into the young girl’s face, making her cough. Peering inside of the dark interior, the girl lifted out a heavy, leather-bound photo album.  Gingerly raising the cover, she was greeting with the chubby, smiling face of a blonde little boy riding a tricycle.  The caption, scrawled in spidery script, read Billy, third birthday, June, 1941. Thumbing through the pages, she caught glimpses of the father-she-new’s  past, growing up in Concord, backpacking in Europe, graduating college.  She paused at the section of her parents wedding.  Her father looked handsome in a black tuxedo, with a red rose peeking out of his lapel.  There were her grandparents, looking as if they were going to burst from happiness. Then her mother, dressed in a snow-white gown that made her dark skin seem warm as coffee, holding a bouquet of fresh roses, and glowing as if lit from the inside.  Following, there were pictures from a honeymoon, then her father kissing her mother’s round belly, with an almost-born-her inside.  The last picture in the album was one of her father in uniform at the airport, duffel slung over his shoulder, and him, grinning and pointing to a sign listing his flight’s destination: Saigon, South Vietnam.  The girl closed the book, and reached into the trunk to retrieve a small velvet box.  Inside was a gold medal on purple cloth.  Awarded for wounds received in action, read the printed script.  Beneath the box was a certificate of death on duty.  She stroked the medal lovingly, sitting by herself with the album on her lap, until something else in the box caught her eye.  A silver hatbox was nestled in the corner, and, by moving the assortment of shirts and diplomas on top of it, she was able to lift it out.  Carefully, she opened the lid.  Inside sat a beautiful mask.