Neshaminy High School senior Cecelia Shine rose to the top of more than 100 entries to be named the 2024 Bucks County High School Poet of the Year. The 37th annual contest is part of the Bucks County Poet Laureate Program and administered by Bucks County Community College.
With the first-place finish, Shine won $300 and was honored at the annual reading and celebration, held on Saturday, May 4, at Tyler Hall on the Newtown Campus. The event featured contest winners, finalists and judges.
Shine’s three poem submissions were entitled “one heart too many,” “The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine” and “it might be just a dream.”
This year’s current Bucks County Poet Laureate Tara Tamburello and last year’s Bucks County Poet Laureate Tom Mallouk served as judges and reviewed a strong field of entries from all over the county.
The judges named Jack DeBoyace, Central Bucks High School East sophomore, as first runner-up; Neshaminy senior Kade Booker as second runner-up; and Central Bucks High School South senior Olivia Cao as third runner-up. All three also read from their works during the celebration.
The entire competition, including the awards and refreshments, is sponsored by donor Gary Kephart, originally of Levittown and currently of Fort Collins, Colorado. For the first time, thanks to his generosity, each runner-up received $100.
Visit bucks.edu/poets or email Dr. Ethel Rackin, a professor of language and literature at Bucks and the director of the Poet Laureate program, at Ethel.Rackin@bucks.edu.
