Tam High Freshman Wins National Honor in Scholastic Writing Contest

It took Tamalpais High School freshman Marley Townsend about an hour to write her fiction story “Jump the Shark,” which was recognized as “one of the most outstanding works in the nation” through The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

“It feels like it just came out of me,” Townsend said. “Which is pretty indicative of my personality.”

She received a Gold Medal award in the Flash Fiction category – an honor reserved for only 1 percent of more than 230,000 works of art and writing submitted this year to the prestigious contest for students in grades 7 – 12. Past winners of this award include Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, and Joyce Carol Oates. 

Townsend will receive the Gold Medal during a ceremony at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 31, which will be webcast live at 3 p.m. Pacific time.

“It’s pretty exhilarating, actually,” Townsend said. “I never expected to get this far.”

She may be the only one who had doubts. Mill Valley Public Library Young Adult Librarian Katie MacBride, who runs a creative writing class Wednesday evenings, said she’s used to Townsend showing up with polished writing pieces that she created in a short amount of time.

“I was excited she won,” MacBride said. “But I wasn’t super surprised.” 

Her Tam High English teacher Jessica Variz, who was her sponsor for the contest, also sees real talent in Townsend’s writing.

“I can tell you that, in five years of teaching English – and a lifetime of reading, Marley has one of the most unique and developed voices I have ever had the pleasure to read,” Variz said.

Townsend’s story “Jump the Shark” is about a young man who wakes up and can’t hear anything, and realizes he’s dead. He knows he’s been murdered, but nobody else is aware, and the story follows his descent until he’s forgotten and disappears.

“I just like creating a world and new characters,” Townsend said. “I kind of get lost in it."

As a flash fiction piece which required a 1,300-word maximum, the brevity required makes character and plot development a serious challenge, Variz said. Townsend said she chose to write in the second person as a way to bring the reader in and make them a part of the story.

“I can see why the Scholastic judges awarded Marley with their highest honor,” Variz said. “It's the subtle rhythm in her prose, the way her poetic turns of phrase invite you in ('pancake palms' is still my favorite), the way her dry humor makes you chuckle. You're having fun playing in her grey and eerie world - until she kills you at the end. She manages to balance a beyond-her-years sophistication with a still-youthful exuberance that lingers long after her 1,300 words are finished.”

MacBride said she enjoyed the anticipation of talking to Townsend each week and finding out every time she moved up a level in the Scholastic competition.

“I tried to push it out of my brain,” Townsend said. Her family has been incredibly supportive, she said, and her identical twin sister Elodie also won a Silver Key award in the Digital Photography category.

Townsend said she’s looking forward to attending the award ceremony at Carnegie Hall, and meeting other writers who she can hopefully learn from.

“I’m pretty nervous,” she said, “but I think it will be a great experience.”

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