Momo Sutton, a senior at Osceola County School for the Arts, will have her poem, “In Christina’s Wake,” featured in local nonprofit Page 15’s 13th annual anthology, “INSPIRED.”
“I was very excited,” Sutton said about hearing the news. “I received the email and the first thing I did was say, ‘Hey Mom, hey Dad! Look what happened!’
“This is my first time being published in a high school anthology, and I can’t wait to see our work come together. “The highlight has been receiving advice and learning from my peers.”
According to Orlando-based publisher Chauniqua Major, this local nonprofit invites the community to a vibrant collection of art-inspired poetry, essays, and short stories crafted by 15 high school authors across Central Florida.
Sutton and the anthology contributors will be honored at an event tonight (Thursday, May 8) to showcase the remarkable voices of her and her fellow young authors.
Sutton said her poem was inspired by two things in Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World. She said the subject, Christina Olson, is stretched out in a field with two houses with her back to the viewer.
“That it’s pretty much like her whole life, and this is where she felt most at home in this field with these two houses,” Sutton said. “And another interesting thing when I was picking pieces was that Christina herself was a disabled person, and the main mode of transport she used, was actually pulling herself on alongside those weeds in the grass.”
Sutton said that it really inspired her poem, as she views this piece of art through the lens of a person with a disability—she was born without a right hand as a result of amniotic band syndrome, and has overcome to become a nationally-ranked Paralympic swimmer.
Sutton said her passion for writing began at a young age and was so strong that she applied to the Osceola School of Arts to become a creative writing major. She said writing helps her make sense of the world around her, and this anthology is her breakthrough.
“A lot of what I write is selfreflections and this poem was kind of like a conversation with myself,” Sutton said.
Sutton said in her poem, she discusses how Olson is more like a symbolic figure, with timelessness to her as she is immortalized in this painting.
“The person we see in the painting isn’t wholly Christina,” Sutton said. “So, to me, it was like, ‘Wait, why? Why would you choose different parts for your painting? Why wouldn’t you just paint Christina?’ And in my poem, I’m addressing disability and the way it’s presented in media.”
Sutton said young people with disability are painted in this very inspirational light.
“It makes me think, ‘What will I look like when I’m still hopefully alive, old, and still supporting the same disability or maybe different? How does that make me feel,” Sutton said. “One of my goals with this poem was for this to be about my own reflection on my disability, but I hope others will think about this poem and make them think more about disability representation in media and social media.”
Sutton said she wrote the poem in January as a class assignment with the option to publish it at Page 15. Now four months later, she said she can’t wait for the event to start.
Major said since 2008, Page 15 has annually served more than 600 children and teens from across the region. She said many of these young individuals encounter challenges such as financial hardships, trauma, or differences in learning, and that studies show young people who engage in creative activities report a reduction in feelings of stress or anxiety.
“Maybe it’s just me, but writing help me process things,” Sutton said. “I love writing, and it’s always been to me more about putting my words on the paper than getting it out and published. But now that I am going to be its surreal. It’s very surreal.”
