Literary Award Named After Park Slope Native Ned Vizzini Honors Young Writers At BPL

“I heard the cacophony of footsteps and clicking heels and the whir of machines and fans. I took a sharp left, walking down the alabaster hallway — empty offices, doors strewn open, and piles of devices being organized by apparatuses that could discern no difference in situation. I kept my feet moving, faster and faster, realizing that my life had been spent doing things of meager importance.” – from “Zeroed Out” by Stina Trollbäck

Gifted writers often start early, and such is the case with the teens who were honored Tuesday night at the Dweck Center of the Brooklyn Public Library during an award ceremony for the Inaugural Ned Vizzini Teen Writing Prize.

More than 300 students submitted entries for the two prizes, which recognize both poetry and prose. Brooklyn’s Stina Trollbäck earned first prize in the prose category for “Zeroed Out,” described as “a dystopian science fiction where the value of a life is always changing.” Trollbäck is a 10th grader at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan.

Manhattan resident Kat Snoddy won the poetry category for “A Meal,” described as a “surreal meditation on the transience of life.” Snoddy is an 11th grader at Horace Mann High School in the Bronx.

The awards carry cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100 for the top three finalists in each category.

The prize also carries a powerful local connection, as it was renamed this year after Park Slope native Ned Vizzini, a young adult fiction novelist who sadly committed suicide in 2013.

Vizzini 2006 novel “It’s Kind Of A Funny Story” is one of his most well-known works. The New York Times review notes, “‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ may seem like an odd title for a book with such weighty themes as adolescent depression and ‘suicidal ideation,’ until you recall the last time you burst out laughing at a solemn or inappropriate moment.”

Vizzini’s novel was #56 on NPR’s list of 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels in 2012.

During the ceremony, prose winner Trollbäck said that Vizzini captivates audiences with his ability to “express emotions in ways the reader has never encountered before.”

Vizzini’s family was on hand for the ceremony to recognize the talented young writers. In addition to his parents James Vizzini and Emma Price Vizzini, Vizzini’s wife Sabra Embury, a writer and book critic, was involved in the event.

“As a guest judge, it was tough narrowing down the top three in both the prose and poetry categories,” Embury told us. “The team I got to work with were not only super cool but they were simpatico with elements that made the winning entries stand out among others.”

BPL President and CEO Linda E. Johnson pointed out the significance of the prize taking place at the Dweck Center of the Central Library. “Not only did he do some of his best writing at Central Library, he was always happy to support and lend his time to BPL events and programs,” said Johnson. “We hope the Vizzini Prize will inspire young authors to find their voices and share them with the world.”

“The cloister of cold water is steeped like tea; how much less am
I in the dark than she? A tongue in her teeth will curdle and
quiet as a woman is made a tableau by the water,
dusky and exquisite, beyond time. Like syrup, blood clots.” – from “A Meal”, a poem by Kat Snoddy

For Embury there were elements of the prize winners’ writing that connected with her husband’s work and work ethic.

“Ned’s taste influenced my opinions, more than say: his personal writing style. Like when we were reading the amazing sci-fi story that ended up taking first place–there were these sentences throughout I KNEW would make him jealous–because he didn’t write them himself!” said Embury. “It’s both hilarious and humbling, how language can effect readers and/or writers. There’s nothing like it.”

The list of top three winners for each category include:

Prose
First prize—Stina Trollbäck, grade 10, La Guardia Arts: “Zeroed Out”
Second prize—Roberta Nin Feliz, grade 12, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics: “Las Mujeres No Hablan Las Cosas De Familia”
Third prize—Adil Gondal, grade 9, Stuyvesant High School: “Emulation of Girl”

Poetry
First prize—Kat Snoddy, grade 11, Horace Mann High School: “A Meal”
Second prize—Odelia Fried, grade 10, SAR High School: “Lady Macbeth, after Duncan”
Third prize—Lucy Berry, grade 9, Brooklyn Prospect Charter School: “Where She’s From”

Congratulations to the winners, the Vizzini family, and all at the Brooklyn Public Library.