“Hallo,” WS! Congratulations to seniors Jessy Settles and Lindsey Renoll, and sophomore Katerina Nawrol, for having their stories published in a student made German anthology called Stimmen aus Fairfax County. An anthology, for those who may not know, is a collection of stories, poetry, and other forms of literature. Along with being published, each girl was given an award based off of the quality of their contributions.
There were two first places- one in AP German Prose, the other in AP German Poetry, won by Nawrol and Renoll; and one second place in AP German Prose, won by Settles. Each piece that was included in the antholoy was read by a group of fluent German speaking teachers. The winners were decided based off of who had the best grammar in their writing and how fluently German it was. Settles, who first started to learn German in first grade, wrote a piece called Pommes.
“It took three hours to write mine,” said Settles. “It’s about a personal experience- an event that happened when I was in Germany.”
The three students that were chosen for the anthology were unaware that they would be chosen. It started off as just an assignment to do for the class but then turned out to be part of a bigger project, to their pleasant surprise. The anthology is comprised of many student written works from all over the DC area. All of them are of course, written in German.
German is a complex language with several different dialects, which vary by region. The three most common dialects are low, central, and upper German. Depending where a person is in Germany, he or she may not be able to understand what is being spoken or be able to read what has been written knowing basic German.
Nawrol received the first place in AP German Prose for her piece Die Kleine Meerrerportnin. The story is an original by Nawrol. It’s about an adventurous mermaid reporter who spots a mysterious ship in the ocean. She decides to investigate the ship, and finds a huge oil spill coming from the ship in the process.
“It kinda stops there,” said Nawrol.
She has been speaking German for most of her life, learning it from her mother who is from Germany. In comparison to Settles’ story, Nawrol’s took about two weeks; working on it off and on for homework. Her hard work certainly paid off in the end.
“I really liked Katarina’s,” said Settles. “It was very creative.”