Sunday, January 11, 2009

Hemet Library - Literacy student takes craft seriously, wins contest

Literacy student takes craft seriously, wins contest
Valley Chronicle: Jan 5, 09: by Valerie Detwiler

Laurie Heber is the kind of woman that doesn't give up easily. She brings an attitude of excitement to everything she does - especially when it comes to her writing.

So it didn't surprise Lea Ashworth, a tutor with the 
Hemet Public Library Adult Literacy Services and Heber's tutor, when Heber brought in a six-page letter to enter in the Writer-to-Writer contest.

It was a bit overzealous because the contest called for a one-page letter to a favorite author who had inspired the letter-writer.

“Laurie wrote six pages so basically we worked together to cut it down,” said Ashworth.

Lori Eastman, the Literacy Coordinator for the library, said they were working on teaching Heber that her first draft isn't her final draft and that writing is a process.

Heber's editing and hand work paid off when she found out she won first place in the “beginning” category of the Writer-to-Writer statewide library writing contest with her letter to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Heber's letter spoke of Wilder's books and their emphasis on family and how that helped Heber through a time when she was dealing with sickness in her own family.

Wilder's books comforted Heber through her high school years, said Heber.

Heber took first place out of 160 writers. READ ON

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