The Cherokee County School District is celebrating the winners of its second annual Short Story Competition.

The content is open to all CCSD seventh- and eighth-grade students as a part of their English Language Arts studies.  Each middle school submits its best entries to be considered for the CCSD honor; a team of judges then selects an overall CCSD winner for each grade.

Of the more than 3,000 short stories entered, Macie Stefano of E.T. Booth Middle School was selected as the seventh-grade winner, and Baileigh Borna of Mill Creek Middle School won for the eighth grade.  Each will receive a certificate and letter from the Superintendent of Schools, and their stories are published on the CCSD website and their school’s website.

“Congratulations to our award-winning authors Macie and Baileigh!” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower said.  “I enjoyed reading your stories and saw the care you put into developing each detail – from the characters and setting, to the dialogue and plot.  It’s clear you have a love of writing and excel at your craft, and I know your teachers are incredibly proud of you as well.”       

Macie’s winning entry, entitled “Zelda’s Star,” is written as a children’s book about a Jewish girl’s escape with her brother from a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during World War II.

Baileigh earned her award for a dystopian fiction-inspired short story, “Life Span,” about a teenage girl’s life in a frightening future when people are forced to hunt each other to extend their own lives.

You can read their stories online here.

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