New Jersey Association for Lifelong Learning 2016
Adult Learner Writing Contest
We’re so proud of our students, and their tutors, for their hard work and encouragement in the NJALL writing contest. Four of our students will take home awards but all entrants are winners. Here are the four:
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Barry Batts
In a touching personal story, ‘Rising Above,’ student Barry Batts wrote about being neglected by his mother, who had 14 children and never registered him for school. He slept in the damp basement of an uncle’s home, at times went days without food and once was beaten for stealing a can of corn from his uncle’s cabinet. “I know that every child has the right to an education, but I missed out due to my mother,” Barry wrote. “I somehow taught myself to read and write, at least enough to get by.” The story won the first-place memoir prize. |
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Clifford Henry
Clifford is a basic literacy student in Essex County. His first attempt at writing fiction brought him the contest’s first place award in the fiction category. The story, ‘Confused Young Man,’ depicts the sometimes-violent troubles that a son’s drug abuse causes himself and his family. “I think it’s great,” said Clifford, an Army Reserve member whose 36 years in the military included stints in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “For someone to write something and get recognized by someone reading it, that’s great. That’s very great.” |
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Fernanda Contreras
In ‘A Christmas Letter,’ Fernanda described a mother’s painful six-year separation from her child. “If you want to see me, you can see the moon because we are under the same moon,” the ESOL student wrote. “If you want to feel me, you can feel your heart. If you want to kiss me, I send my kisses in the wind.” The entry won second prize for poetry. |
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Beralia Briceno Beralia told of growing up in Danli, Honduras, where she swam in a small ravine, raced through spacious fields, smelled wild flowers, and ate mangos, guavas and oranges in the trees she loved to climb with her sister. She laments that her daughter will not experience the same in Newark. ‘Childhood Memories,’ Beralia’s story, won the third-place memoir award. “I was very impressed with the good news,” the ESOL student said of her prize. “I really liked my childhood memories. I was very happy.” |
Insight 2016
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