Katy Gilmore ’20 Wins Scholastic Writing Gold Medal

Gilmore won the gold medal for her short story “Mnemosyne” in the Science Fiction & Fantasy category. The competition is open to students in grades 7-12. There are 29 categories of art and writing, and according to Scholastic, nearly 350,000 works of art and writing were submitted this year. Scholastic describes gold medal winners as, “The most outstanding works in the nation.” Gilmore said in the letter she received, it noted that her gold medal placed her in the top 1% of all the people who entered.

 

Gilmore’s short story is about a boy in his freshman year in college at the University of Illinois who is battling the past he left behind. He forms a relationship with a girl who is a mythical entity and can change memories. The girl is based on Mnemosyne, who is the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. “The story is about the main character’s struggle over whether to give in and erase his memory for a better one or accept what’s happened to him,” Gilmore said.

 

Asked about how she became interested in science fiction and fantasy, Gilmore said: “I grew up being read books like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In middle school, we did so much creative writing and reading in class all the time, that’s what I gravitated toward. I think Hutchison definitely contributed to my love of reading, especially with all the in-class reading time built into the system.”

 

Gilmore said that because of the award, she’s gotten scholarships to summer creative writing programs, which she hopes she can do. Last summer, Gilmore did a camp at Vanderbilt about political rhetoric where she learned how to write speeches. She said that in addition to reading and writing, she loves political science and history. “If I could incorporate writing into that interest, like speech writing or something, I’d love to keep writing.”

 

Read her story, “Mnemosyne,” on the Scholastic site.