Tate Higgins
2008 CAL Scholarship Winner  

 "Why I Write" 

When I started thinking about the subject and the question of this essay, I realized that I don't spend too much time thinking about why I write. I just write. Maybe it's because I can think of a lot of reasons to not write-it's difficult, time consuming work which often results in intangible rewards-and yet, I return to the blank page day after day.

Writing is the hardest thing I have ever tried to do well. Ernest Hemingway said that "writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done-so I do it. And it makes me happy when I do it well." This is a quote I return to over and over again. I believe and understand Mr. Hemingway when he says that writing is a perpetual challenge. I have seen my writing get better through hard work and practice, and each time it gets a little better I raise the bar of my own expectations.

I write because I have to. A cop out of an answer, but it's true. Of course, as Mr. Hemingway says there is also much pleasure in writing, especially when after much work a piece feels right. There is a note taped above my writing desk that reads "Be an artist." To attempt to write well and honestly is to attempt to create art. There is no greater feeling than to create art where before there was nothing but blank pages.

For the past few years I have had the occasional opportunity to teach writing to elementary school students and also to college students. It is in these classrooms that I am constantly reminded of the power of writing. The students show such wonderful energy to create and to imagine. You can see the joy, the proud shine, in a student's eyes when they create a poem or a story for the first time.

I, like most writers, started my apprenticeship by being an avid reader, and I believe that the passion to write comes naturally from the passion to read. There is magic in reading and in writing. The world is a complicated, confusing, and beautiful place. Writing, a solitary, quiet pursuit, doesn't mean ignoring real experience, but rather to write means to look at the world more intensely. I am never more carefully observant and engaged in a subject than when I am writing about it. I write in order to look closely at the world and understand a little piece of it better. Even alone at my desk, I am striving for an understanding of how we humans communicate and connect with each other. This desire and pursuit of understanding carries into my real life experiences, and I believe that writing and living inform each other and cannot be separated as two distinct and exclusive pursuits. I write because I am curious about the world and the people who walk on its surface and also because I am curious about my own feelings and desires.

Mr. Hemingway also said, "I believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try to make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful. Then you write for who you love whether she can read or write or not and whether she is alive or dead." It is in this quote that I find the final reason I write. I write because I want to share. The ultimate joy of writing is to find a reader for your work so that the conversation and the study of life can be continued. I write not with a specific "she" in mind, but because I'm in love with the world. I can't help it. -- Tate Higgins

  Scholarship Application

Beginning in 2002-2003, the Colorado Authors' League, the state's premier organization of professional independent writers, began offering a $1,000 scholarship to an aspiring Colorado writer.

The Colorado Authors' League created the annual scholarship as part of its commitment to encourage and support Colorado writers.

The Colorado Authors' League Scholarship is open to applicants who:

• are legal residents of the state of Colorado and must be enrolled in an accredited Colorado school
• are officially enrolled full time (at least 12 hours) at an accredited private or public college, university, community college, junior college or vocational school
• have successfully completed at least 12 hours of undergraduate study
• have a minimum GPA of 2.5 or better
• demonstrate financial need.

In addition, applicants must write an essay of up to 1,000 words on the topic "Why I Write." Essays will be judged for excellence of writing, creativity, and grammar.

Applications must be postmarked by April 1. Winners will be notified by May 1.

Incorporated on January 14,1932, to foster the art and craft of authorship, the Colorado Authors' League (CAL) is the state's premier organization of professional independent writers united to further members' success. It is one of the oldest such organizations in the western United States. Today, CAL includes more than 200 specialists, whose work embraces every branch of fiction and non-fiction.