The New Poet’s Society held an awards ceremony for student writers on April 20 at Lake Washington High School’s Cadle Theatre. Students from Redmond, Lake Washington and Eastlake High Schools competed against others from their school and final poetry selections were then forwarded to the New Poet’s Society to be considered for scholarships and other prizes.

The top prize, known as the Judge’s Choice Award and scholarship funds of $1,200 went to Kotomi Yamamura from Eastlake for her poem “Revelation.”

First runner-up, Max Maser from Lake Washington, had an untitled poem which earned $800 in scholarship money.

Second runner-up, Emma Heil from Eastlake, received $600 for her poem “Empty.”

Third runner-up was Sydney Veltkamp from Redmond, who received $400 for the poem “Pocket Change.”

Other finalists received gift cards from Parkplace Books in Kirkland and SoulFood Books in Redmond. These students were Thomas Moore, Rachel Solomon and Simone Vieco of Redmond; Kristina Brown and Sean Tornquist of Eastlake; and from Lake Washington, Jeff Myers and Jennifer Swasey, the only entrant to have two poems in the finals.

The New Poet’s Society was created by Redmond poet, novelist and instructor R.E. Smith whose first book “A Sweeter Understanding,” was a silver medallion winner for the 2007 Bill Fisher Award at the PME Benjamin Franklin Awards. His second book “The Window Ledge” has also been well-received by a national audience.

Smith has already begun plans for the 2009 New Poet’s Society contest and hopes to increase fundraising to reward more young people for their creativity. For information, e-mail rsmith2@hotmail.com.