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CREATIVE WRITING WINNERS MAKE ARTISTIC MEMORIES Three Maricopa community college creative writing students were recognized recently for their entries in the national League for Innovation in the Community College Literary Contest. The League, a consortium of community colleges from throughout the nation, sponsors the annual writing contest. Regional first-place winners in each of four writing categories compete nationally. The Maricopa district winners who placed in the national League competition are: Paulette Pohlmann, Scottsdale Community College, second place for creative nonfiction; Tracy Werth, Phoenix College, third place for one-act play; Kolleen Roberts, Mesa Community College, honorable mention for poetry. Pohlmann's essay, “Ma Chere Grandmere,” was "a commemorative piece about my grandmother and the family she built," she explains. "My grandmother was a Cajun, very exotic, and very special to me." Although Pohlmann is a trained journalist and specializes in business writing, she is new to creative writing. "I decided to take a creative writing course taught by Sandra Desjardins at Scottsdale Community College last fall solely on the strength of referrals. As it turned out, we had an extraordinarily interesting and diverse class. "Among other things, I learned that everything I’d written prior to this class was easy by comparison," she adds. “When you commit to creative writing, you commit to baring vulnerable parts of yourself. I probably learned more about who I am through this class than anything else. It takes an act of courage to reach into yourself for artless memories and turn them into art for others to enjoy." Werth, also an accomplished writer, finished third in her first attempt at playwriting. She won awards for creative nonfiction in the League’s 1998 and 1999 contests. This year, Werth penned a "soap opera-ish" one-act play, “Family Tree,” about two dysfunctional sisters. The work was the product of a dialogue class taught by Ken Kulhawy at Phoenix College. "I’ve always wanted to write," she says. "I used to enter the Redbook Magazine young fiction writers’ contest every year. I started when I was 23 and every year I would write a story for the contest until I got too old to enter.” The urge to write continued to gnaw at Werth. "Awhile back, I decided to quit my job, close up shop and chase the writing dream instead of the dollar. . .and it’s been fantastic." Werth wrote an article about forgotten landmarks in Los Angeles that appeared recently in The Tribune newspaper. Roberts, also a journalist, entered her poem, “Einstein’s Brain: A Fable.” The Mesa Community College student says she was pleased that the League judges enjoyed her work. "I enjoyed the writing program I was in at MCC and I think students do well because the district has such good writing programs." Click here for next story.