Caroline Knightly, Reporter
Freshman Katherine Mettler was selected by the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) to read her poem, “Parenthood,” at CWP’s Student Recognition Night on May 13, at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on the campus at UConn-Storrs.
“Parenthood” was selected from more than eleven hundred entries for the 27th issue of the Connecticut Student Writers magazine. The night honored all published writers, but Katherine was the only freshman asked to read her poetry.
Katherine uses her mom as an inspiration for her writing and how growing up watching her handle with seven children has impacted her today. “I get to see how my mom does her job with handling kids,” Katherine said. “It was an inspiration to watch her with a new baby because she demonstrated just how much mother love their children.”
Because she didn’t write poetry before her freshman year, Katherine was unsure about entering the UConn Connecticut Student Writers magazine competition. “Going into this assignment, I really didn’t think I was going to win any award besides the extra credit in my English class,” Katherine said.
Besides doing it for the extra credit in her Freshmen English class, she used it as another excuse for free-writing time. “Writing is like leaving yourself and going into a different world and being absorbed in a place where you don’t think about anything else,” Katherine said, “If I’m really passionate about something, I write about it, and that makes writing more enjoyable.”
Her Freshman English teacher, Kristen Brown, praised the quality and meaning of Katherines poem as a first-time poet. “She used beautiful vivid, imagery,” Ms Browner said, “She was writing about a photograph but it felt like you were witnessing the scene yourself, first hand and she just has a really interesting way of phrasing her words and capturing details.”
