2009 Writing Awards Ceremony

On Wednesday, September 30th, my composition 227 class had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Writing Awards Ceremony. It was located in the CASL building and it started at 5:00pm. There were refreshments of doughnuts, cookies and cider offered, which was nice because I had just come from my job, and was a bit hungry.
I strolled in the room where I sat with a few of my classmates. The atmosphere was very relaxed. I observed that the winners brought some family members and friends with them which I thought was a great support to them. Unfortunately, not all of the winners were able to attend due to class and/or work schedules, so it was a smaller crowd. As the professor and host of the ceremony made a speech, I could feel the expectation in the air as the winners were preparing to accept their awards. A few read some pieces that I thought were very interesting and enjoyable.
The piece in the fiction category that stuck out the most for me was called "Point Of No Return" by Holly Carlisle. The piece was about a woman marrying into a situation where there was domestic violence. I have a good friend who was in that same situation for a short while. She left him, thank goodness. I feel that my friend would get some insight reading a story like that to know that she isn't alone.
In the poetry section, the poem that caught my attention the most was "Tornado Township" by Carl J. Garfield. As he read it, I could almost hear the tornado sweep through, but what I thought was great was the fact that the poem was in a tornado shape, it was a great visual! Another poem that caught my eye was Amal Algahmi's "Hitchhiker." It was short, sweet and to the point.
These pieces were just a few of many. Some of the winners chose not to share their pieces, which I thought was too bad because I was curious to find out what they were about. In the research writing category, I would have liked to have found out what winner Lauren Crawford found in "Winding The Toy of Morality: Defining The Existential and Hedonistic Morality of A Clockwork Orange." It's understandable that some people are shy, however, when and if they become famous writers, they may be required one day to read a piece.
All in all, I enjoyed the ceremony and the pieces of writing that I heard. The winners received certificates and had their pictures taken at the end of the ceremony. Hopefully, next year there will be more attendees.