The Bakersfield College Writing Center is having its second creative writing contest this semester.
Entries can be submitted through Oct. 31, but must be an original new creation.
Professor and project leader, Kelli Michaud said the first, second and third place winners were announced on Sept 1.
They received a certificate, and their work is on display in the Writing Center.
They will also get published in the Roughneck Review as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
“We were pretty excited about that,” she said.
The topic was to write about a journey, spiritual, emotional, or physical in 500 words or less.
The Writing Center is a place where people can have study groups discussing writing or other subjects.
With a welcoming atmosphere, the center is a place to become empowered.
“Writing is a lifelong communication skill,” said Michaud.
“So, when students feel confident in their writing skills, it’s going to open doors, and that’s what we want to see happen for them.”
In keeping with the Halloween theme, this contest involves creating an urban legend that incorporates BC somehow within the tale.
It must be 750 words or less and the winners will be announced Nov. 15.
“We just wanted to promote writing, and bring awareness to the Writing Center,” she said. “To just get students writing, not so much academically, but just for fun, to be creative, and just step outside the box.
“An urban legend story would be one you could tell when you’re gathered around a campfire.
“I guess you could call them ghost stories that have been told over time.”
She gave an example of the legend of the weeping woman, who is known as the Llorona.
“It could be something that is passed on, as true, or maybe not,” said Michaud. “Maybe there is something on campus that we haven’t heard.
“We just want people to take something fun about BC and incorporate it somehow into an urban legend.”
According to teaching consultant Kim Arobolante, an urban legend is usually something that is grounded in some degree of truth that stretches it to the fiction area.
The legend part tells us it something that has been told, and retold, and retold.
“So a story that starts out one way evolves into something else because so many people have retold it,“ said Arobolente.
“Did you hear about the ghost in the library? Or what about these crazy bomb shelters that are all over the campus? I know the legend I might create.
“Did you hear when they stopped using them [the bomb shelters] they’d hide orphans in the basement?” said Arobolente.
“Or something like that. It’s taking a piece of truth that you have and then creating it into something totally fictional that you can pass on.
The winner of the center’s first writing contest was Jarad B. Mann, who won with a composition titled “Not From Here (But Chicken Sure is Tasty).”
Originally from the East Coast, Mann came to Bakersfield for a radio career in 2004.
As the radio personality Meathead, he co-hosted the KRAB Morning Show for six years. This is his second semester at BC.
Mann heard about the contest from his history professor. This was his first attempt at story writing, and he just entered to see what they thought.
The story is about an alien who journeys to earth live a lifetime as a human and to understand humanity.
Mann got the idea from seeing someone eating a piece of chicken and how “barbarically” people ingest it.
“What if an alien came to earth and saw people eating a chicken?” said Mann. “They would think we’re the most barbaric species that ever lived in the universe.”
Mann says he loves devouring chicken and as it turns out, so does the alien.
He wants to start a writing club, and have open mic nights where people can read their poetry and short stories.
He believes that this can help people’s shyness of speaking publicly because it is their own work they’re reciting. He calls it “speech therapy out loud.”
The Writing Center hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays.
They are located on the second floor on the west end of the Jerry Ludeke Learning Center.