Reflection of The 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony:

Thursday. April 10. 2014

The 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony: 

       On Wednesday April 9, 2014 the English Department of the College of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras welcomed students, professors, members of the University community, sponsors, parents, family and friends to its Forty- Seventh Annual Literary Contest. This event that I assisted for the first time took place at the Amphitheater 4, in DMN. The purpose of this contest was to present and honor student works in three different literary genres: the short story, the essay, and the poetry. However, this ceremony began at 11:30am with the presentation of Dr. James Penner, as the Literary Contest Coordinator and as the host of the ceremony. After he introduced himself, he began to name each judge of the contest. Then, the Dean of General Studies, Dr. Marta Medina Santos, spoke. Later, our English professor Dr. Cynthia Pittman imparted a speech about of how important and benefit is it to write during the morning. Overall, I liked her presentation because not only showed how essential it is writing practice, but also presented methods of how writing help you to learn more about yourself.

     

        After she finished her presentation, the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the amazing performance of the UPR Tuna Bardos. However, when they finished performing their pieces, Dr. Elsa Luciano gave a speech that I found it very educative and interesting, because she expressed and explained the importance of writing and reading. I want to pointed out one of the important things that she said in her speech that was when she stimulated all the audience to create a blog because it is a perfect way to organized and express your thoughts or ideas. Overall, she really gave us good advice about it. 

        Finally, they began to name the winners of the Literary Contest. As I mentioned the contest was divided in three categories: poetry, essay, and short story. And each of these categories were composed by 3 judges. The coordinator of this ceremony started with the mention of the winners in the poetry category. The first prize for poetry was given to Javier Acevedo Arus with his poem “Sanitation”. Then the second prize was given to Shalomir Gierbolini Vázquez, with her poem “Casting a Soul” and the third prize was given to Dannelle Llera Ortiz, with his poem “Contemplation of a Man”. In the essay category the winners were the following: First prize was for Yadmila Matos Serrano, with her essay “Winning the War”. Second prize was given to Natalia Pagán Serrano, with her essay “Drowning in Denial”, and third prize was given again to Javier Acevedo Arus, with her essay “Believing in Bi”. On the other hand, in the category of short story the one who took the first prize was my friend Claudia Cruz Rivera, with her story titled “Made with Love”. Overall, all did an excellent work. It was not only an amazing experience for me, but also for all students who participated in this Literary Contest. 

1.) http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/enter-the-royal-palm-literary-award-contest-now-for-early-bird-rates/

2.) http://chandigarhliterary.blogspot.com/2012/08/award-function-for-short-story-writing.html

3.) http://daynalcheser.com/contests-2/15000-followers-new-website-contest/writing-contest-logo/