What a Feeling: winning an award for writing

March 29, 2017 • Posted in blindness, careers/jobs for people who are blind, memoir writing, technology for people who are blind by

Some writers in the Memoir-writing classes I lead have had their memoirs published, but none has ever won an award (with a cash prize, no less!) for their writing…until now.

Photo of Andrea Kelton.

That’s the award-winning Andrea. Photo courtesy Darlene Schweitzer.

A poem Andrea Kelton wrote has been awarded a cash prize for Second-Place in the Magnets and Ladders poetry contest! Andrea’s poem What a Feeling will be published in the Magnets and Ladders Spring/Summer 2017 edition along with a memoir called Water Balloons that she wrote for class.

A visual artist, Andrea was running a pottery workshop for children in 2005 when she first enrolled in our “Me, Myself and I” class sponsored by the City of Chicago’s Department on Aging. I couldn’t see the low vision magnifying reading glasses she used to wear to read her essays in class. It wasn’t until she read an essay about losing a job after being diagnosed with an eye condition in her twenties that I realized she can’t see well: Andrea has uveitis.

In 2009, glaucoma started setting in as well, leaving Andrea unable to read print. Like so, so many other writers in the classes I lead, Andrea did not give up. She learned to use an audio and magnifying computer program called Zoom Text to write and edit her pieces at home, and when it’s her turn to read in class, she passes a print copy to Wanda, who is hard of hearing. Wanda reads the piece aloud: the deaf leading the blind.

Magnets and Ladders is an online magazine with a tag line that says it all: Active Voices of Writers with Disabilities. The submission guidelines make it clear the magazine “does not feature advocacy, activist, how-to, or what’s new articles regarding disabilities” and prefers poetry, memoir, fiction and non-fiction.

You can read the magazine or sign up for the Email edition by visiting the Magnets and Ladders website. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a sneak preview of Andrea Kelton’s prize-winning poem here. Congratulations, Andrea.

What a Feeling!
By Andrea Kelton

The easel
Holds a painting
Featuring a free-form tree
Under an explosive yellow sun.

The artist
Brush in hand
Stands back
Admiring her masterpiece.

Satisfaction bubbles
Then
Glee gushes and rushes
Through her four-year-old body.

Andrea glows with wonder
At this treasure she’s created.

Emotions explode
As she discovers
That
Doing art
Creates bliss.

Susan Ohde On March 29, 2017 at 12:55 pm

Go Andrea! This is a beautiful poem.

A. Atkinson On March 29, 2017 at 1:07 pm

Thank you for beautiful “insight.”

Sheila A. Donovan On March 29, 2017 at 1:10 pm

Congrats to Andrea! Well deserved.

Sharon Kramer On March 29, 2017 at 3:29 pm

Andrea, a beautiful poem. Thank you for writing such inspiring words. Congratulations!!. Looking forward to seeing you in May.

Nancy Y On March 29, 2017 at 6:02 pm

Congratulations. I enjoyed your delightful poem & also find Beth’s articles provide such interesting insights. Thanks to you both for sharing your writing talents.

Regan Burke On March 29, 2017 at 9:54 pm

Congratulations! And what a stunning poem.

Karen Giammarese On March 30, 2017 at 10:58 am

LOVE LOVE LOVE this and shared on Facebook. Thank you!

Andrea Kelton On March 30, 2017 at 1:15 pm

Thank you, Beth, for featuring my poem on your blog. It’s quite an honor. And a big thank you to all of Beth’s readers for your congratulations and kind words. What a feeling!

Jule Falco On April 2, 2017 at 1:42 pm

Lovely descriptive flow to accentuate a wonderful awareness of self! Great job Andrea! Bravo!

Mel Theobald On April 14, 2017 at 5:47 pm

Andrea, you have made words visible. As an artist myself, your poem is a wonderful reminder of the time I first knew that was what I wanted to become. Beautifully done. Thank you.

Anne Hunt On June 2, 2017 at 11:22 am

gushes…rushes…glows…explodes! BLISS! — words with feeling!!!

Anne Hunt On June 2, 2017 at 11:26 am

gushes…rushes…glows…explodes…bliss!

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