Abby Burgess is a Piscataquis Community Secondary School senior living in Sangerville, Maine. She started her poem “Can you hear it in the silence?” while attending Monson Arts’ High School Program. While Abby was in Monson this week, we asked her a few questions about her experience at the high school program and what encouraged her to submit it to the Telling Room’s Writing Contest.
Q: Was the piece you submitted to The Telling Room something you wrote at Monson Arts? Did you learn about it here?
A: Yeah, I wrote it this year, and then I brought it home and edited it a few times before submitting it. I’ve always liked writing, but I didn’t do a whole lot of it until I came to Monson. I wouldn’t have known about any of this type of stuff before. When I learned about the writing competition, I read through some submissions from last year, and I decided to submit a poem.
Q: What do you think is the best part about this program? Do you feel like you’ve become a better writer?
A: Yeah, just writing, and writing what you want. Because in school you don’t really have a choice. I had never written a poem until I came here because I never really knew how. In school they make it feel like it’s strict rules. Then we came here, and it was more open and free. We can write about what we want.
Q: Does this program make you feel like writing is something you want to continue to do?
A: Yeah, before I came here, I really wanted to write, but I didn’t have an outlet for it. My goal in the future is to become a published author, not as a main job, but because I just really love to write. I would like to branch out from poetry and write novels, maybe.
Q: Did you consider that before you came to the high school program here at Monson Arts?
A: I did, but I didn’t really think I could do it. This actually made me sit down and write, and it made me realize that I can, which is not something I thought was an option before.
Q: Was your poem based on personal experience?
A: It’s not really a personal situation, but I love to read, and I wrote it based on the types of books I read and based on feelings. There are no specific pronouns or people in it, but anyone can read it and understand what it feels like to be in that type of situation.
Q: Were you surprised that you won the award for Piscataquis County?
A: Yeah, I never thought I would. Even when I decided on a poem, I thought, “I probably won’t win.” But when I got the email, I was so surprised. I thought, “This is so great.”
Read Abby’s award-winning poem: “Can you hear it in the silence?”
The Telling Room empowers youth through writing and sharing their voices with the world. Learn more about their statewide writing contest here.
Monson Arts hosts a 15-session high school program for 24 students from local schools. These young writers and visual artists work directly with professional creatives to learn and develop skills in a studio environment.
Dawn Potter directs our writing program and offers online poetry classes via The Poetry Kitchen. She led poetry and teaching programs at the Frost Place for more than a decade and has served as a visiting writer at the Solstice MFA Program, Smith College, Endicott College, and many other institutions. When not teaching, she works as a manuscript consultant and as a freelance editor for literary and academic presses. Dawn is the author or editor of ten books of prose and poetry–most recently, the poetry collection Calendar. She was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, and her memoir, Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton, won a Maine Literary Award in Nonfiction.
Time and space to create.
Monson Arts is a new artists’ residency and arts center in Monson, Maine. Programs include residencies for artists and writers, intensive shorter workshops, and educational partnerships with area secondary schools.