AAUW to honor creating writing contest winners

On Thursday, April 5, the American Association of University Women Batavia-Geneva-St. Charles branch will hold a Creative Writing Contest ceremony during the monthly meeting. Guests will enjoy hearing excerpts from this year's winners.

The guest speaker will be E.V. Jones., who lives in Geneva with her husband and six children. She was born into a family of seven children in Northlake. She began writing poetry at a young age. Her love for writing has followed throughout her life. As an adult, Jones made up bedtime stories for her children. She began writing the stories and eventually published them. Her most recent young adult novel is entitled "The Wish." It is the first of a four-book series of "The Cloverleaf Chronicles." She is a nursing supervisor at a local hospital but her love of creative writing drew her to volunteer her talents at her children's elementary school.

Jones founded a Young Author's Club (Y.A.C.) to encourage creativity in the young students. Her newest endeavor has been a program called T.A.P. (The Authors Program). This is a free program offered to give readers a rare glimpse into the development of "The Wish," its characters and her journey on becoming published.

The branch is continuing its tradition of encouraging and honoring aspiring young writers from the Tri-Cities area. In this technological age where communication via texting and tweeting sacrifices creativity for brevity, it is rewarding to see that many young people still take time to seek self-expression through prose and poetry.

The branch meetings start at 7 p.m. with networking at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1125 N. Fifth Ave. (Route 25) in St. Charles; enter from lower level back parking lot. Visit sites.google.com/site/bgstcaauw/.