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The 3rd Annual UBBCP

Celebration of Reading Writing Contest

for
Middle and High School Students

 

 

 
Welcome to the Celebration of Reading writing contest.  A competition where we invite Grades 2-12 students to respond to the 2009 theme of Celebration of Reading, Literary Healing III—“Value of Life”

 

 

United Black Book Clubs of Pittsburgh (UBBCP) wants to spread the love of literature throughout the community. We can't think of anything more important than encouraging the youth to do the same. So we hope you'll gather your words, creativity and writing skills to define the “value of life.”  UBBCP believes that reading and writing are tools for gaining knowledge, instruments for communication, and means for reflection and recreation -- essential to the health and strength of our communities as well as the happiness of its citizens.  The Celebration of Reading Writing Contest is encouraging children to enrich us all with their creative visions of our world, as it is and as it might be.

 

 

ESSAY QUESTION 1

In Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, Jefferson’s court-appointed lawyer tells the jury not to condemn him to die because he is no more than a “hog”, who couldn’t possibly be able to plan a robbery and murder. He said he was only fit to pick cotton or carry a load. Grant Wiggins’ job is to convince Jefferson that he is valuable, that he must live as well as he can, even though he is sentenced to die.

 

Using this background information, examine and respond to the following writing prompt:

 

“Living Your Life Like It’s Golden”: Give advice to someone younger on how to value life so that this world becomes a better place.

 

 

ESSAY QUESTION 2

In Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, Jefferson is sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit. About 10.4% of the entire African-American male population in the United States aged 25 to 29 is incarcerated.  As of 2006, the United States’ penal population was 46 percent white, 41 percent African American, and 19 percent Latino. According to the same study, African-American youth amount to 15 percent of all American juveniles. However, they represent 26 percent of all juveniles who are arrested by the police nationwide. It seems as though incarceration has been the deliberate criminalization of young black people, with the construction of a “school-to-prison pipeline.”  

 

Using this background information, examine and respond to the following writing prompt:

 

 

Why are so many black men being incarcerated in prisons across America?  What are the solutions to preventing the criminalization of Black people?

 

INSTRUCTIONS:   

In a carefully written and well supported work, explain one of the two directives in no more than three (3) type-written pages. Entries may include essays, plays, poetry, or short stories.  

SUBMISSION DATES

 

1.  Entry must arrive no later than extended til May 2, 2009.

 

2.  Submit all work in an envelope or folder to

 

Homewood Library

COR Writing Contest

7101 Hamilton Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15208

 

 

or

 

      email to

 

writingcontest@ubbcp.org