The Wick Poetry Center hosted its annual Stan and Tom Wick poetry scholarship reading on Thursday evening at Rockwell Auditorium.

The reading showcases poetry from undergraduate and high school scholarship winners, to also finalists.

Brandon Johnson, now a sophomore at Kent State, who plans to major in psychology and film, was the winner of the high school scholarship.

The high school scholarship is open to any Ohio high school senior who plans to enroll at Kent State. Johnson’s winning poem was called “Lasso of Truth” and was based off of a character in Greek mythology.

The recipients of the undergraduate scholarship were third place winner, Lindsay Miraglia, a senior English major, writing minor and an intern at the Wick Poetry Center.

She read her winning poem “Deteriorate” along with “Collapsing Skyscrapers,” “I’m Afraid of Turning into a Reclusive” and “Pen.”

Tyler Etchell, a recent graduate from Kent State with a bachelor’s in nursing was awarded second place. He ironically wrote his winning poem “Cleveland” in Florida. He also read his poem “The Rapid”, which is based on the Cleveland rapid transit system.

Corinne Engber, a junior English major with a minor in human sexuality and a staff member of Brainchild, the honor’s college literary journal, won first place.

“When I was deciding on which poems to read, I decided to read the winning one, the gross one and then the gay one,” Engber said on stage.

Alice Vermillion, a freshman English major, was required to go to the reading for her creative writing class.

“The poets were absolutely fabulous. I love hearing other people’s perspectives through poetry,” Vermillion said.

She felt inspired by the event and wants to be a poet after graduation.

Deniz Koptur, a Ph.D. student from Istanbul, Turkey, and instructor for college writing said that she has been wanting to go to a poetry reading.

“I thought it was beautiful. I loved the variety. You don’t expect all these views of the world and life,” Koptur said.

The Wick Poetry Center will teach a new course “Writing across Borders” for four weeks in Florence.

To learn more about their course and the Wick Poetry Center, visit their website https://www.kent.edu/wick

Jillian Holness is the humanities reporter for The Kent Stater, contact her at [email protected]