Key West senior’s essay selected for Writopia symposium in New York

A Key West senior turned a one-page essay about her own writing process into a national stage in New York City, where Writopia selected Kayden Davis’s work from more than 1,000 submissions for its Topia Talks symposium.

Davis, a senior at Basilica High School, traveled to New York in mid-April for Writopia’s youth essay conference and symposium, where her essay, A Perfect Mess, was among the pieces chosen for discussion. The symposium theme, Process and Original Voice, gave added weight to her selection because the event centered not just on what students wrote, but how they wrote it.

Davis submitted the essay in February and learned it had been chosen for the April conference. The essay reportedly laid out her own writing process and style, a topic that fit Writopia’s focus on student voice and originality. Her essay was selected for discussion by a panel that included Davis herself, putting the Monroe County student in direct conversation about the craft behind her work.

The 2026 event was scheduled for Sunday, April 19, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Goddard Riverside’s Bernie Wohl Center in New York City. Writopia said the conference was free to attend and open to attendees who could hear essay excerpts, ask questions and take part in Q&As. This year’s symposium also expanded beyond essays to include panels and presentations focused on the writing process and voice.

Writopia said the event also examined how student originality may be affected as more teens turn to ChatGPT and other AI tools for answers. That made Davis’s selection especially notable for a student from Key West, where access to outside opportunities often depends on leaving the islands while still carrying a local education and identity with them.

Davis’s path also reflects the role of arts programs in opening doors beyond the classroom. She told Keys Weekly that she had taken an online Writopia creative writing class last year, a one-week course that helped connect her to the organization and eventually to the New York conference.

For Basilica High School, Davis’s national recognition adds another marker for a school that is still building its footprint in Key West. The school was set to add grades 9 and 10 in the 2023-2024 school year, and Keys Weekly reported in 2022 that Basilica would be the only Catholic high school in Monroe County. Principal Robert Wright said then that enrollment had grown 100% between 2013 and 2019 and that the school expected about 180 students by year three, with scholarship support through Step Up for Students helping keep tuition within reach. In that setting, Davis’s success showed how a student from Monroe County can compete, and stand out, on a national writing stage.