{"id":338311,"date":"2026-05-29T23:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/338311\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T23:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:45:13","slug":"young-authors-faire-celebrates-creativity-identity-in-budding-fresno-county-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/338311\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Authors\u2019 Faire celebrates creativity, identity in budding Fresno County students"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the school year comes to a close, some students are putting their pens to paper and writing stories.<\/p>\n

The Young Authors\u2019 Faire<\/a> is a longstanding Fresno County tradition that\u2019s been held for more than 40 years. The annual event is a place where the Valley\u2019s youth showcase their storytelling skills by writing their own original works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and illustrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event happened May 6 at The Big Fresno Fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multilingual students are also encouraged to submit stories in their home languages, as a significant portion<\/a> of Fresno County students speak another language other than English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fresno County Office of Education sends out the call for submissions across all districts in September \u2013 early in the school year so students can have as much time as possible to dream up their ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the submissions deadline closes in the spring, stories are then reviewed and judged by English Language Arts and Library Services staff at the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools<\/a>. Awarded authors receive a gold embossed seal to recognize their achievement.<\/p>\n

This year, the fair received over 250 submissions by 917 students across 44 schools, according to Maria Petropulos of FCSS.<\/p>\n

But no matter who wins, FCSS emphasizes the fair is meant to raise Fresno student voices and support their creative endeavors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not just students, you are authors. Your words have the power to tell stories, to inspire others, and to make people think and feel and understand each other a little bit better,\u201d county Superintendent of Schools Michelle Cantwell-Copher said during the ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multilingual stories of culture, identity among top honors\u00a0<\/p>\n

Central Unified swept the exemplary categories, taking home five awards and nine honorable mentions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district has a diverse student body, with a high percentage of students with Latino and Punjabi roots<\/a>. Nearly 15% of the student population is also composed of English learners, according to the California School Dashboard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Awarded submissions titled \u201cDear Punjabi Girl,\u201d \u201cRoots of My Soul,\u201d \u201cWe are Not Inferior,\u201d and \u201cSmart\u201d explored themes of heritage, identity and racism \u2013 and how these all can shape a person\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n

Another submission titled \u201cThe Chicago Bears\u201d by Elliot Shafer of Central Unified won in the exemplary non-fiction category for its usage of braille<\/a>, a tactical writing system that utilizes raised dots to communicate writing to blind and visually impaired individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brenda<\/p>\n

Esther Quintanilla \/ CVJC\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brenda Portillo and Briana Rivas show off their honorable mention ribbons at the Young Author\u2019s Faire.<\/p>\n

Sixth-graders Brenda Portillo and Briana Rivas of Mendota Unified were awarded an honorable mention in the exemplary fiction category for their Spanish piece\u00a0 \u201cLagrimas de Dinero,\u201d which translates to \u201cTears of Money\u201d in English.<\/p>\n

The story follows a young girl who can cry tears of gold, and uses it to help her family financially. The narrative is solely in Spanish, reflecting the authors\u2019 Latin heritage and real life experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to write this in Spanish\u2026I hope it shows more students that anything is possible and to keep going no matter what,\u201d Portillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The top award, the FCOE Accolades Book Selection, goes on to be printed as a hardcover book. This year, Peyton Jensen of Sunset Elementary at Coalinga-Huron Unified took home the award with her novel \u201cAll About Space Dinosaurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s book will be recognized at FCOE\u2019s Honors Gala later this year, and hardcover copies of her book will be distributed to county educational partners and other honorees. Jensen\u2019s teacher and school library will also be gifted copies of the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the school year comes to a close, some students are putting their pens to paper and writing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7,112,622,114,113,139536],"class_list":["post-338311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-california","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-young-authors-faire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}