Two of Creative Writing Club’s The Ink teams competed at the Hotter than a Steel Mill poetry slam with one winning third place.

Hotter Than a Steel Mill is an annual competition held in Merrillville, Indiana on Feb. 6. Creative Writing Club brought two teams who prepared for over a month in order to perform their original works. The competition consists of both individual and group performances.  

“There were four schools who presented a team of poets and they competed in different rounds. Individual poets performed in rounds one through four. In the last round, the four people who just performed individually now perform a poem together as one team, and that’s the challenge,” adviser Amanda Cordes said.

After performing for the first few rounds, one of the two teams that performed made it to finals. Sophomores Kate Bove, Rachel Kent, and Anthony Tate advanced and placed third in the final round while the second team, consisting of senior Chris Arbudzinski, sophomores Noah Schuning and Brandon Morss, and freshman Nora Zamora, placed third in the first round and did not advance.

“This was a preliminary warm-up slam to the real slam, which would have been Louder than a Bomb. We decided not to go this year to take off a year and use it to improve our skill level,” Arbudzinski said.

According to Cordes, the club lost a lot of members last year due to seniors graduating. They chose to take this year to give new students a chance to see what performing it like before competing in a bigger competition like Louder than a Bomb.

Later in the year, Creative Writing Club hopes to host a showcase of the poets in the auditorium. New students are always welcome to join or perform. If interested, students should contact club advisers Tara Deleon or Cordes.