Writing Award Ceremony

I was invited to attend the University of Michigan Writing Awards Ceremony which was held this past week. As I walked into the school and into the auditorium, I noticed that there was a nice selection of snacks and drinks being offered to anyone attending. I entered the auditorium and quickly found a friend to sit with. I panned the room and seen some familiar faces from my comp227 class, but also observed that there was a good amount of people that I didn’t recognize. No doubt these people were staff, friends, and family of the award recipients.

When Professor Potvin began to speak, quiet conversations among the guests faded into a complete silence. He spoke about the writing program and the different areas that had recognition. During this time, an Associate Dean also spoke to the group. She expressed how proud she was of everyone and also spoke on behalf of another Dean. At this point, Professor Potvin began to introduce each area that was focused on and the winners in that section.

We began with readings from the poetry section. I am unsure if I am just “poetry-illiterate” or if the small excerpts were not enough for me to truly appreciate each poem, but I found the readings hard to follow and actually only understood one of them. The first place winner, Amal, read from her poem titled “hitchhiker”. This was the one poem that I did seem to like, partly because it was the only one that didn’t make me like I was not intellectually evolved enough to understand it.

After poetry, we moved into the Fiction winners of the night. Two of the readings really hit me in very similar ways. The first reading, entitled “Point of No Return”, at one point gave me chills. It was about an abusive relationship. As the author spoke you could feel the emotions pour out of her, as if you were in the story as a close friend. I felt myself sink as she read, feeling hurt, anger, and pain. The second reading was from the work “Swing on the Spiral”. I also think that the writer did an awesome job evoking emotions from the reader.

At this point, for me, the other writers were going to have a difficult time inspiring me. “What could top these?” I thought to myself. We moved into the last readers for the night. They were winners in the Creative Nonfiction section. They were overall good writings, but did not bring out the emotions that I had felt just minutes before. It could be that I just needed to hear more of the reading, or that I had such an emotional reaction to the prior readings.

The evening wrapped up with a few more categories, but no readings. I would have been interested to hear what these writers had to say, but none of them chose to speak. After the last awards were given Professor Potvin gave a closing and the night was concluded. I found the entire experience to be somewhat motivating mixed with a little envy. I am a fairly weak writer. Seeing these writers and hearing their works intimidated me in regards to what “college” level writing should be. I just am focusing on the fact that this was an award ceremony that showcased the best of the best.