SAW’s night meetings starting out slow

To the editor, After two nighttime meetings, the Shawano Area Writers have not seen much interest in these events. But it’s not totally bad news. Only one person has come to the two night meetings, and this person has a lot of potential as a writer. In the Student Writing Contest years of 2022, 2023 and 2024, Francesca Ullmer a homeschooled student, has won nine awards. Through these years, she won four first-place, three second-place, one third-place award and one honorable mention. I’m the coordinator for the Student Writing Contest, and when student writers send me more than one entry, like Francesca did, I purposely mix them in with the other entries for that category, so the judge for that category will not read her entries one after another. Her entries still ended up at the top of the pile of stories. As a group, SAW doesn’t know what will happen to these young writers as they make their way into the big, wide world. I have mentioned more than once that students who have won even an honorable mention in our contest, to make sure they put that on any job application that they fill out, if there’s a place to do that. Why? Because knowing how to put words down on paper will put this young person ahead of a lot of applicants. It seems writing is becoming a lost art. So even though our night meetings are starting out slow, we are going to continue them for one year and then decide whether we should continue. There are so many people out there who have led interesting lives, and those experiences will be lost forever if not put down in writing. Experiences that could be passed on to their younger family members. In 2005, I got together with my mother and produced a biography of her life. I’m so glad I did that, as she passed away in 2006. Our next meetings for the Shawano Area Writers will be on Dec. 19 from 10 a.m. to noon in the basement of the Shawano County Library and then from 5:30-7 p.m. at Shawano’s Café, W7389 River Bend Road, Shawano. Questions? Call John Mutter at 715-524-4520. John J. Mutter Jr., Shawano