Evie Lee is poetry in motion, and who knows how far her talents will take her.
So far, so good.
A native of New York City, the 16-year-old, a boarding student at the Solebury School, where she is a rising 11th grader, has risen to the top of the nation’s teen writing talents. She was just named a 2023 National Silver Medal winner in poetry by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards/Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, finishing in the top 1% of entrants culled from a cadre of accomplished writers around the country.
Her honor for her entry, “Other,” places her in a historical hotspot shared by others of incredible talent in the century-old writing competition, alongside such scintillating scribes as Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath and Stephen King.
In her poem, Lee limns the loaded legacy of prejudice targeting those born of mixed race who are born with the burden of withstanding cutting comments and racist remarks from people who deem them as the “other.” It was a problem experienced personally by the writer, whose parents are Asian and white.
“I remember some of the offhand comments while attending elementary school in the Grammercy Park” area of New York City, she said.
How ironic that so many of the put-downs came from upper-crust kids in an environment “socioeconomically privileged in many ways.”
In a way, it was a precursor to the somewhat cursed climate she would encounter at middle school in New York City, “where I was in an honors program and the majority of kids were from white or Asian households while those in the school’s core program” didn’t come from as entitled a background. “There was an almost outspoken racial tension there,” she recalled.
What she learned there was at the core of what would become “Other,” written as part of a class assignment in which concepts of one’s color were examined for why they became perceived as treacherous shades of difference when under the microscope of a closed-off mind. The assignment, under the aegis of Solebury honors English teacher Lisa Pope, would help Lee set sail on to the silver medal at nationals.
Writing always showcased her mettle as a creative child.
“I always read a lot as a kid and had a pretty big vocabulary,” she laughed.
Word since is that others have taken note of her way with language as well: Next week, Lee will leave home to take part in a heralded creative writing program at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., returning at the end of summer to Solebury, where she has soaked up the freedom to fit within her own skin. Truthfully, “I don’t think of my racial identity a lot — which is itself a privilege.”
Indeed, she added, Bucks County itself “so very much defines the celebration of the individual.”
Lee is not limited in her self-expression. At Solebury, she is an intern in the music program headed up by Cathy Block. Yes, Solebury rocks — and so, it seems, does she: “I’ve been a member of the school rock band,” doing vocals and guitar.
She is also vocal about finding fulfillment in other arts and anticipates working for the school’s theater as a costumer. Additionally, as is her custom, she wants to help address her own social core by caring for others. “It is important that I help impact those around me, serving the community,” she noted. To that end, Lee will become co-vice president of Solebury School’s Service Society next semester.
Even if she’s not quite sure what university she wants to attend post-Solebury, she is certain about one thing — the important influence of two individuals at school who helped give shape to her individualistic direction: her advisor, Kristy Raska, and school counselor Julie Laing.
And as Lee thinks about turning the page on her future, she doesn’t envision a one-day career limited to and defined by a desk job; she thinks life so far has literally aged well. “Fifteen treated me pretty well,” said the award winner. Will 16 treat her even sweeter?
With a niceness that comes naturally, she said, “I’ll just have to wait and see.”
Michael Elkin is a playwright, theater critic and novelist who lives in Abington. He writes occasional columns about theater and the arts.
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