Get Lit! lights fire for many QC students

Western Illinois University-QC English professor Everett Hamner had the largest participation ever from area high schoolers in the 2024 Get Lit! writing and art contest.

The InterDisciplinary English and Arts Society (IDEAS) at WIU-QC first hosted Get Lit! in spring 2018, and has continued each year with only a year off in 2020.

Hamner said the huge event is only possible due to commitments from the high school teachers who help encourage their students and in many cases attend, and due to partnership with WIU-QC’s Office of Student Activities and Student Government Association, and this year, the university’s Career Center.

This year, 131 students from seven local high schools participated – including Moline, Rock Island, Bettendorf, United Township, North Scott, Geneseo and Orion.

“Our aim is simple: inspire and celebrate high school wordsmiths and imagemakers,” Hamner said recently by email. “Whether students submit poetry, short stories and other long-form entries like screenwriting and creative nonfiction, or some kind of visual image (paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture), they are invited to spend time with other students across the QC area who value the work of the imagination.

“Very often these students present incredibly courageous, heartfelt visions of themselves, their communities, and our collective futures that we would love even greater audiences to ponder,” the English prof said, noting they offer first, second, and third place awards with cash prizes in the three formal categories above as well as in rotating thematic categories (this year including Race/Class, Gender/Sexuality, and Possible Tomorrows).

Activities at Western

The in-person event (which was Thursday, April 4 at the Moline campus) has two main components: the fulfillment of the writing and art contest and the opportunity to learn about the possibilities of college.

“While it isn’t right for everyone, the right college fit can be an invaluable investment for many people,” Hamner said. “WIU is only that for some, but we want them to hear about us, and most importantly get a chance to hear that many good doors are open to them. Most of our guests seem to appreciate the chances to dialogue very frankly with a panel of current students and to sample a range of classes and labs. This year, high schoolers visited Introduction to Art History, a course on Leisure, our Maker’s Lab and other Engineering spaces, and a specially designed mock class hosted by a fellow English professor.”

The climax of Get Lit! was the open mic main event, where this year 37 students representing seven different local high schools presented their work. Many read poems, but others excerpted short stories or talked about their visual art creation process and its personal meaning to them, Hamner said.

“We would have liked to provide chances for even more students to present, but even with our three-minute time limit, this was the most we could fit,” he said. “Every year, it amazes me all over again how courageously these students are willing to speak their truths. If you think teens today are coldly indifferent to the world around them and interested only in video games and texting, this event might be especially encouraging.

How winners were chosen 

As of the deadline a week before the event, the festival had received 95 poems, 26 short stories and long-form pieces, and 36 images. A team of two professors and four students set about scoring these entries on a 9-point scale over the subsequent weekend, with every work receiving at least one professor’s and two students’ initial evaluation, and then much more assessment of the top 40-50% of entries.

There was then a 2.5-hour judges meeting to make final determinations, with a key rule that no student could win more than a single category (they are allowed up to three entries, whether in a single formal category or spread across the three).

The winners were:

Poetry

• 1^st Place: Maya Boehle, “Shattering The Jar” (Moline, sophomore)

• 2^nd Place: Izzy Dudek, “Contingencies” (Moline, junior)

• 3^rd Place: Caroline Girten, “My Last Poem” (Geneseo, junior)

Short Stories

• 1^st Place: Arianna Vesey, “A Bëeg-BAhD Day” (Bettendorf, senior)

• 2^nd Place: Riley Johnson, “Lavender Skies” (North Scott, sophomore)

• 3^rd Place: Connor Culbertson, “The Shattered Throne” (Bettendorf, junior)

Images

• 1^st Place: Leidy Monarez, “Lovers” (Moline, junior)

• 2^nd Place: Vienna Noles, “Charcoal Fox” (Moline, junior)

• 3^rd Place: Ivan Acosta, “Investigation #1” (United Township, junior)

Race/Class

• 1^st Place: Jacquelin Figueroa-Tavera, “Dreaming a Better Life” (Moline, junior)

• 2^nd Place: Rosa Gomez, “La vida entre gentrificación” (Moline, junior)

• 3^rd Place: Lyric Howard, “The Calling/American Pie” (Moline, senior)

Gender/Sexuality

• 1^st Place: Maryam Alhamdan, “Paul and Virginia” (Rock Island, senior)

• 2^nd Place: Stella Lundh, “Finally Free” (Bettendorf, sophomore)

• 3^rd Place: Lyn Kress, “It Comes in Waves” (Rock Island, senior)

Possible Tomorrows

• 1^st Place: Akira Ketner, “Tomorrow” (Moline, junior)

• 2^nd Place: Calla Graham, “Generation Z” (Moline, freshman)

• 3^rd Place: Jami Alonso, “A Path in the Dark” (Moline, junior)

Why so many more students took part

Get Lit! was growing consistently until the pandemic and then we had to take a year off in 2020 and do the online contest only in 2021. Hamner said they clearly reestablished momentum, and “our IDEAS officers get a great deal of the credit for helping to roughly double participation this year,” he said.

The attendance on Thursday included 126 students, 11 teachers, and one principal, and “this happened in large part because IDEAS President Abbey Jones has been so dedicated to social media around the event, VP Sarah Wright was indefatigable in handling small details, Treasurer Audrey Lamb and Member Courtney Belha worked so hard on hard copy invitation mailings, Secretary Karissa Geisinger was willing to step up in every way asked and then some, and SGA Liaison Grace Gugelmeyer kept lifting loads even when exhausted,” Hamner said.

He also thanked Director of Student Activities Curtis Williams and Executive Director for Outreach and QC Operations Audrey Adamson, “without whose efforts we never would have been able to welcome so many people.”

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