Creative Writing and Writers’ Circle students from Chester High School participated in this year’s Southwestern Illinois College poetry competition. This event was held at SWIC’s Red Bud campus and had hundreds of participants from all over Illinois. If you aren’t aware, the SWIC poetry competition is an annual event hosted by the SWIC Red Bud Campus that encourages creative writing and provides a platform for poets of all ages to showcase their talents. The age categories include, adults, high school students, and elementary school students. Three winners are selected in each category.

Chester High School award-winners in this event include Jason Sibley, Will Welge, and Chace Murphy. All three of these students received a Barnes and Noble gift card with a total based on how high they placed.

Jason Sibley won first overall in the high school age division. According to Jason, “the title of my poem is called ‘To whom it may concern’, I wrote it because in Creative Writing, every week, we have to read an original piece of work in front of the class. I like to write horror short stories, so I figured I would combine the poem and story version of me into one”. After attending the reception in Red Bud, Jason thought, “the event was calm and nice. The energy was of accomplishment. Everyone there wrote fantastic poems…”

Will Welge was the second-place winner this year. In 2023, Will was the first-place winner of the competition with his poem, “Metamorphosis.” Welge explained that his poem for 2025 is called “lightning”– he wrote this poem about “being in a dark situation, feeling lost but finding courage within yourself to push on.” Welge described the poetry contest by saying, “the winners from each age group went up and read their poem, the judges would make comments about them… and there were refreshments afterwards.”

Looking back on the responses of the overall winners, the SWIC poetry contest was a tremendous success and a great time for all!