[stylist] Awards

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Jackie

That was a great worm story! I enjoyed the perspective, informative, yet
sensitive. It makes a reader wonder if it was the result of some special set
of CDs, or God forbid, by emersion learning. Anyway, congrads!

(I'm getting primed for the Writers' Division's annual meeting in Dallas.
Our guest speaker is a comedy writer.)



-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacqueline Williams
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 11:26 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] Awards

I am truly a happy camper today, and forgive me if I blow my own horn a bit.

I just received five awards through the mail yesterday from the NFSPS 2012
Annual Contest. It stands for the National Federation of State Poetry
Societies.

None of them were a first, second, or third place, which means no money, but
there was a 1st, 2nd, one 5th, and two 7th place Honorable Mentions.

I have recently attached two of these to my e-mails to you. Medicine Wheel,
which was "Our American Indian Heritage Award,  and "Rocky", which was on
the topic of When bad things happen.

I will only burden you with one attachment. Mainly because I thought it was
hilarious that it got an award. It was from the League of Minnesota Poets
Award, and the category of long free verse. 

In it, I have taken the name of an angle worm. Who asked me about
anthropomorphic poems? Not sure this is one, but I was trying also to
portray the voice of one dead, a Spoon River. 

The bright spot is that with an honorable mention, I can submit the poem
again with the confidence that it is a good one that might be in need of a
tweak or two.

In only one of the five were the judge's comments included. In her remarks
she stressed the importance of not having even one error in spelling,
punctuation, or usage. In her category there were 257 poems, and every one
with even one error was automatically discarded because it was so difficult
to winnow out even the ones with  perfect form, so that she could
concentrate on content, form, etc.

It is doubly difficult when you use a screen reader to accomplish this, as I
am sure you all know. But I would encourage you to try.

If anyone wants the information on next year's contest, I will be scanning
it for myself, and could make an attachment. The problems, the scanner often
makes mistakes in spelling or skipping some things. 

Sorry I missed the phone conference on Sunday. As Lynda has said, personal
contact means a great deal.

Jackie