Naperville H.S. Writing Prize Winners

We are pleased to announce the winning entries for the 2025 NWG High School Writing Prize!

Student writers from Naperville schools were invited to submit their work. Ray Ziemer, Project Coordinator, and Chairperson Andrea Visione presented the awards.

We wish to thank Gillian Schneider from Nequa Valley High School,

Helena Hitzeman from Naperville North, and the judges for all their efforts in helping us promote the art of writing in our community.

Two winners from Neuqua Valley High School are, for poetry, “Home of Resilient Olives” by Alisha Bilal, and for the short story “House at the End of the Universe” by Daniel Srbinov.

The Non-fiction prize for the essay “How To Build a Library” goes to Sarah Riemer from Naperville North.

Each winner received $300 and a certificate of their achievement, plus publication in the journal Rivulets published by the Naperville Writers Group.

The three independent judges all have local connections: The poetry judge was Kristin LaTour of Aurora, author of 5 books of poetry and founder of the Aurora Writers Workshop. Fiction judge Matthew Thomas Meade of Oswego has published short fiction widely and is himself a prize-winning memoir writer. The judge for the non-fiction entries was Richard Holinger, teacher, author, and Pushcart Prize nominee from Geneva, IL.

Alisha Bilal (poetry winner): is a Neuqua Valley High School senior who has taken three creative writing classes so far. Alisha Bilal has aspired to be a writer from a young age. As a result, Alisha also took a poetry class, which inspired her to delve deeper into the world of poetry than ever before. She found an outlet in this genre as she stretched her abilities in new directions. Throughout her high school career, she has taken all the Creative Writing Courses available as well as poetry, which inspired her to write and delve deeper into poetry than she ever dared before. Wishing there was more she could do for the Palestinian people, she found an outlet in her newfound hobby of poetry. She wrote “Home of Resilient Olives” in hopes that more people might turn their attention to the ongoing pain and struggle of the Palestinian people. She hopes to one day publish a fantasy trilogy and live her dream of being an author. She plans to attend the College of Dupage next fall and major in writing, after which she hopes to transfer to a four-year school and complete an undergraduate degree in creative writing.

Daniel Srbinov (short story winner): Neuqua Valley senior who developed his interest in storytelling during his sophomore year and has recently started to take the subject more seriously. Though he plans to get a degree in criminal justice at COD and pursue a career as a state or federal investigator, writing will remain a crucial part of his life, and he hopes a mix of skill, luck, and networking might get him into the writing industry. Currently, he spends much of his writing efforts dedicated to writing short screenplays, and he hopes to write his first draft for a feature-length film within a year.