WADESBORO- Contest winners and their families gathered inside the Little Theatre at the Hampton B. Allen Library for the Anson County Writers’ Club 31 annual Awards Ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 23.
Certificates were given to Youth Poetry and Youth Prose winners for age groups 3 – 5. 6 – 8, and 9 – 12. The Teachers of the award-winning students received goody bags filled with school supplies. Awards were also given for Adult Poetry and Adult Prose.
First Place Youth Poetry winners included Zyrell Robinson of Lilesville Elementary School, 3 – 5 age group, for her poem “Your Best”, Allison Honeycutt of Anson Middle School, 6 – 8 age group, for her poem “Purpose”, and Leon Liles of Anson County Early College, 9 – 12, for his poem “To Veterans”.
The Youth Prose First-Place Winners were Catalina Liles of Lilesville Elementary, ages 3 – 5, for her story “Rose and Boomer”, Kenya Tanner of Anson Middle School, 6 – 8 age group, for “The One Who Started it All”, and Abigail Gano of Anson County Early College, 9 – 12 age group, for “The Deal”.
Kelly Liddington of Polkton would win both First Place for Adult Poetry for his poem “A Righteous Farmer” as well as Second Place for Adult Prose for his story “If It’s Black and White It’s a Holstein.
John Witherspoon grabbed Second Place for his poem “Mountains” and Mario Kersey of Raleigh came in Third Place for his poem “Elegy to Joy”.Wadesboro resident Kaye Ratliff, Anson County Writers’ Club President, won Third Place for her story “Come Ye Thankful People, Come”.
John B. Marek of Wadesboro won first place for his story “Esque”. “I’m not going to lie to you, turning into a slug scared the crap out of me the first time it happened in High School,” was one memorable line from the story which was about a hapless college student’s occasional transformation into a slug.
Marek is part of another writer’s group close to Lake Norman. “We do a writing exercise every month,” explained Marek, who added, “For this one, we were asked to write something in the style of Franz Kafka and things written in the style of Kafka are referred to as ‘Kafka-esque’, hence the title.” One of Kafka’s most well-known stories is entitled “The Metamorphosis” and is about the struggles of a man who one day wakes up to find he has been transformed into an insect.
A reception featuring finger foods was held after the Awards Ceremony to honor the contest winners. The contestants were judged by members of the Union County Writers’ Club. The material that was sent to judges did not include the name of the other and was judged by merit alone.
The next event held by the Anson County Writers’ Club will be Back Porch Stories which is, “an evening of family entertainment with storytelling and Music.” J.A. Bolton will the event’s Master of Ceremonies and it will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 24 at the Little Theater in the Hampton B. Allen Library.
