Loren Cruise. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

This week the Friends of the Harvard Public Library chose Loren Cruise as the winner of the annual John F. Whitcomb Memorial Poetry Award for her poem “And Not Missing It,” a free-verse creation selected from a field of 21 entries. The poem, written for her creative writing class at the Arlington School in Belmont, was inspired by time spent on her grandmother’s farm in upstate New York, Cruise said. After submitting the poem to the annual contest several months ago, she was pleasantly surprised when Susan Frechette, co-president of the Friends, called to congratulate her on winning the $500 prize. She doesn’t have any immediate plans for the money, she said, but was pleased with the recognition of her work.

After evaluating all the poems for several months, the judges kept circling around to Cruise’s poem, Frechette said. The contest was judged by Ann Levison, Sophie Wadsworth, and Ralph DeFlorio.

Cruise has been writing poetry and short stories since the ninth grade, and she hopes to continue her writing career in college. Although she has been writing just a short while, her work has already been published: the poem “As It Changes” was printed in the March 16, 2007, edition of the Harvard Press. Although she writes mostly for school assignments right now, Cruise said, she is also at work on some short stories. Story themes center around ordinary, everyday events, she explained, like the bus ride to school.

Cruise most admires the work of modern poets like Billy Collins. “I like the fact that his subjects are very simple, yet he is really good at describing things,” she said, adding that Emily Dickinson is a source of inspiration as well.

While the 16-year-old junior is now busy looking at colleges, she also finds time to pursue her other hobbies, like horseback riding, swimming, and playing with her two dogs. Cruise lives on Tahanto Trail with her parents, David and Karen, and her sister, Kelsey.

The John F. Whitcomb Memorial Award for poetry came about in 2001, when Whitcomb, a doctor and part-time poet, was an active member of the Friends. His love of poetry and the library led him to initiate and present amateur and professional poetry programs in town. In his honor, the Friends established a poetry competition in his name in 2001 for juniors in high school.