And the 2019 YAFF winners are…

The Young Authors Fiction Festival 2019 culminated with a celebration event on Friday 14 June at the American Library in Paris. Over 200 people attended the celebration event, including the young author finalists, parents and teachers. Each finalist was awarded a certificate and a personalised bookmark with a comment from a judge who read their story. Two YAFF celebration booklets were printed with the full stories of all the 1st to 5th place winners from Kindergarten to 5th in one booklet and 6th to 12th Grade in another. The celebration booklets are available for 15 euros each from the Library.

This year we received 841 entries, our biggest intake ever, from 50 schools and writing classes located in and around Paris. The Library thanks the 94 judges who volunteered their time and expertise, to read all the stories and choose the winners, as well as the YAFF 2019 committee who took care of all of the details along the way.

The YAFF 2019 committee included volunteers Molly Belhitche, Brooke Burns, David Lawrence, Lucy McCloskey and Katherine Youngblood, as well as Library staff members Kirsty McCulloch Reid, Pauline Lemasson, Celeste Rhoads and Morgan Wurzburger. Special thanks to Library director Audrey Chapuis for her support and guidance and to the volunteers.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Kindergarten/Grande Section & 1st Grade/CP
1st Place: Green Beans by Milo Tanaka
2nd Place: The Candy Planet by Jules Accioly Menezes
3rd Place: The Bear and the Penguin by Grace Violet Lee
4th Place: The Secret Blue Door by Lewis Bunn
5th Place: A Trip to Earth by Junghyun Park

2nd Grade/CE1
1st Place: Why Kids Are Naughty Sometimes by Sophie Lou Chung
2nd Place: The Green Dragon by Raphaël Issembert
3rd Place: Four Kids and a Candy Head by Eva Costes
4th Place: Mr. Imaginater by Cameron Brackin
5th Place: Mrs. Shadow by Soyoung Park

3rd Grade/CE2
1st Place: The Golden Necklace by Louise Harper
2nd Place: Claudine will not go to school anymore by Violette Younès
3rd Place: The Runaway by Lillian Grigsby
4th Place: The Mysterious Man in the Van by Saisha Harshavardhan
5th Place: Lost in the Woods by Alexander Bafi

4th Grade/CM1
1st Place: Gargoyle Greg by Will Barry
2nd Place: The Bubble Gum Boy by Oskar Lewis
3rd Place: Lick! by Carrick Lindsay
4th Place: A New Home by Emmanuelle Tétard
5th Place: The Kingdom by Jonathan Gaznabbi

5th Grade/CM2
1st Place: Do you really need a voice to be happy? by Maria Giulia Larcinese
2nd Place: No Jewellery For Me by Yeseo Son
3rd Place: How the hedgehog got his prickles by Paul Reinaud
4th Place: Blocked with Stone in the City of Lights by Bella Kamnitzer
5th Place: Heavenly by Ryaed Khaqan Najeeb

6th Grade/6eme
1st Place: Run! by Liam Ross
2nd Place: WWIII by Camila Villalpando
3rd Place: Youth Lost by Lily Thébaut
4th Place: Lover’s Remorse by Ella Gordon
5th Place: The Mexican Plot by James Hayes

7th Grade/5eme
1st Place: Eye of the Storm by Nora Pratt
2nd Place: One of a Kind by Emma Bartley
3rd Place: Beautiful Goodbye by Veronika Cameron
4th Place: The Wish Curse by Naomi Vaughan
5th Place: Zero by Leila Ghezali

8th Grade/4eme
1st Place The Seine Hatter Saachi Jain
2nd Place Mama Abua Celeste Gunnell-Joyce
3rd Place Accepting the Truth for What It Is Juliette Potier
4th Place The White Rasta Philippe Postec
5th Place The Great Fall Ludovica Johnson

9th Grade/3eme
1st Place: Mud by Alexis Schmidt
2nd Place: And Nyx Descended Upon Them by Morgane Pizigo
3rd Place: Maya by Louise Besnier
4th Place: Fireworks by Jaimee van Tonder
5th Place: Purpose by Avishi Mihika

10th Grade/Seconde
1st Place: A Patch of Grass by Alexander Crété
2nd Place: Echoes of a Melody by Leila Yassawi-Pivato
3rd Place: Cheers! by Nirali Jain
4th Place: What’s Your Name? by Meghana Vasantharao
5th Place: The Cliff by Elizaveta Vinogradova

11th Grade/Premiere
1st Place: Silent Room by Liza Astashina
2nd Place: Troubled Youth by Phoebe Wilson
3rd Place: Mr. B by Louïs Fulham
4th Place: Lough Hyne by Kate Souami
5th Place: Flush! by  George Livingstone-Wallace

12th Grade/Terminale
1st Place: The Itch by Julia Brahy
2nd Place: A Reluctant Obituary by Veronika Lassl
3rd Place: The North Country Train by Nathaniel Ogg
4th Place: This was the day by Stanislas Lanvin
5th Place: 7:30 by Mathieu Cardosi

More pictures from the event can be found on the Library Flickr.

The American Library in Paris is proud to be the organizer of the Young Authors Fiction Festival. YAFF aims to strengthen community among English-speakers in the Paris area through the art and craft of storytelling. The Festival is open to all students ages 5 to 18 in the greater Paris area who write in English.

We look forward to YAFF 2020, so until then…Happy Writing!