Casco Bay High School freshman Albertina Dos Santos is the grand prize winner of The Telling Room's 19th Annual Statewide Writing Contest.

Dos Santos’ winning poem, "To Love a Country," was recently selected as the winner by a panel of judges that included local authors, illustrators, editors, Telling Room alumni, and current Telling Room students. Dos Santos will be published in The Telling Room’s upcoming annual anthology of youth writing and will receive a cash prize of $250.

Excerpt from "To Love a Country:"
To love a country as if you’ve lost one: 
2009, my mother left Angola 
with sand in her shoes, 
three children clinging like shadows to her skirt. The 
air behind her smelled of charcoal and mangoes, the 
air ahead bleach, bus fumes, and cold steel. Her 
partner’s voice followed like thunder: low, constant, 
crackling through every silence. 

Read the full poem: “To Love a Country” by Albertina Dos Santos