Student Writers Honored at Readers as Writers Event

About 300 people came to the 2009 Readers as Writers award reception on May 12. Family, teachers and others cheered for the 97 first-place winners and the 73 second-place Honorable Mention winners.

Greg Borowski spoke to the audience at the reception. He is local enterprise editor of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He also wrote three books.

“I came here straight from the Journal Sentinel, where I am lucky enough to work with a room full of great writers,” he told everyone. “But I really feel like I came to another room full of great writers.”

21st annual contest
The Key Newspaper holds the Readers as Writers contest every year. Adult literacy students from cities and towns throughout Wisconsin may enter the contest. They can submit essays, poems, short stories, opinion pieces or other genres of writing for a chance to be published. The students have to be enrolled in adult basic education, GED/HSED, adult high school, English as a Second Language or tutoring programs. Students in adult literacy programs at correctional institutions also may participate. This year students submitted 360 entries.

The Key Newspaper publishes a book of the winning entries every year. This year’s book is titled, “The Fabric of Life.” All Readers as Writers books are in the Milwaukee Public Library. They are part of its permanent collection.

Borowski said that the stories in “The Fabric of Life” are important. They are “stories of struggling families and lonely days, of happiness and joy, of friendships lost and friendships found,” he said. “These are stories you often don’t see in the daily newspaper or on television.”

It also struck him that the writers were willing to tell these stories. “It takes courage to write with honesty and conviction,” he said.

Borowski talked about how writers struggle. “Everyone faces the point where they can’t find the right word,” he said. “Or they have a jumble of words or … worse, no words will come at all.”

He urged the new writers to keep reading and writing every day. He said this is the only way to become better writers.

The reception was at the main campus of Milwaukee Area Technical College in downtown Milwaukee.

Librarian read from “The Fabric of Life”
Judith Gloyer, a librarian from the Milwaukee Public Library, read several essays and poems from “The Fabric of Life.” Dr. Dan Burrell, Assistant Provost at Milwaukee Area Technical College welcomed the guests and advised the students to continue their education. He congratulated the teachers for their work with the students.

All of the guests of honor received certificates of achievement and paperback dictionaries. A buffet was served.

The Key Newspaper and the Readers as Writers contest are funded by an Adult Education and Family Literacy Act grant through the Wisconsin Technical College System. The Readers as Writers contest is also sponsored by Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Milwaukee Public Library.

This year's Readers as Writers Winners List

Sources: “The Fabric of Life” Greg Borowski’s “Literacy event” document.