SINDHA AGHA

DIANA LIU

URBANA — The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is a renowned national competition sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Known for recognizing writers such as Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andy Warhol as teenagers, the competition received more than 140,000 entries this year. Submissions are divided among 81 regional affiliates.

Juniors Sindha Agha and Diana Liu both won Gold Key awards in the largest affiliate, the Region-At-Large category, which includes Canadian and schools abroad entries.

Of the approximately 5,000 entries received by Region-At-Large, 300 were selected as Gold Key winners. Silver Key and Honorable Mention awards were also bestowed.

Only Gold Key entries are forwarded to the national competition for judging. Neither Liu nor Agha won a national award.

Liu received her Gold Key in the short story category for her narrative "Arsenal of Words." This is her first year participating in the contest.

Agha won her Gold Key in the journalism division, for her detailed OG profile of Uni alum and musician Jake Hertzog.

When Agha was a subfreshman, she won a Gold Award at the national level in the short story category for her piece "The Velveteen Rabbit Remembered."

Her sophomore year, she won another Gold Award for her science fiction/fantasy story "Tantamount," and this time her story was published in the volume "The Best Teen Writing of 2007."

Other writing divisions include dramatic script, humor, poetry, nonfiction portfolio, personal essay, and short short story.

Art divisions include ceramics/glass, design, drawing, mixed media and printmaking, painting, photography and digital imagery, sculpture, video, film and animation, and photography portfolio.