Young writer honored

Most California kids go to Carnegie Hall as part of a sightseeing excursion, bundled in with the Empire State Building and the Met.

But Laguna Beach seventh-grader Colin Johnson was there onstage on June 15 — not to sing as part of a choir, but to accept several awards honoring his writing.

Two of Colin’s short stories — “Make the Moon Dance for Me” and “The Tomb Painter” — won gold medals in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2007. A collection of poems, “In Götheréan,” won the silver.

The 14-year-old from St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano received those three medals in a competition in which most kids are grateful to receive one, his parents said.

The contest was open to seventh- through twelfth-graders, and 350 medals were awarded out of tens of thousands of entries, Colin’s tutor, Clarissa Ngo, said.

The journey to New York was very rapid, Colin’s parents said.

Colin’s work was first entered in a regional Scholastic contest. The letter announcing his win there was followed two weeks later by another from the national competition.

While at Carnegie Hall, Colin participated in writing workshops and attended exhibitions. He is getting some of the traditional East Coast trip experience, though; his parents also opted to take him to historic Civil War sites and Washington, D.C.

Colin developed a love of writing from a prior loathing of it, thanks in no small part to Ngo.

“I’ve seen him every week since he was in fourth grade,” Ngo said. “He acted like he didn’t like writing before; he would be squirming in his chair.”

Then came the change. Colin, who previously found writing boring and science infinitely more interesting, said he realized that the former didn’t have to be comprised of simple formulas, like mathematical equations.

It was more of an art, and the literary devices like similes and metaphors that he learned from Ngo allowed him to grow.

“They give your writing more zest,” Colin said.

They also made writing a lot more interesting for him.

“When you start to get good at something, you start to enjoy it,” Ngo said.

“He always had a lot of imagination because he read a lot, but the thing that takes you from having a good imagination to good writing is a lot of practice,” Ngo said.

Then came the submissions.

He wrote a poem about how nasty he felt when he was sick on a ski trip that was published in the Los Angeles Times. Others followed.

“He did so much work outside of school; he would produce poem after poem, and not give up even after receiving rejection letters,” Ngo said.

So far, Colin’s work has been included in magazines, a standardized test and a backpack reader.

He’s been published twice in “Stone Soup,” an international young writers magazine that receives 250 submissions a week.

“He’s just a regular kid, and he’s starting to be great at skateboarding,” Ngo said. “He doesn’t have a big head about this stuff.”

Colin also loves surfing, candy and the Mythbusters television show. He doesn’t see writing as being the solitary pursuit of his life; athletic interests continue to vie for his time.

“Whatever he’s doing, he’s passionate about it,” his father, Don said. “Most importantly, he’s proud of himself.”