We are pleased to announce Adam Richardson and Mallika Ahuja were BOTH selected as Flash Writing Challenge Winners. Congratulations!
Last week, the MS in Professional Writing program announced a Flash Writing Challenge in memory of 9/11. As a way to remember, document, and reflect on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we invited participants from across the NYUSPS community to submit open format entries of 300 words or less. With a short 5-day deadline to this challenge, creative entries and multimodal pieces were encouraged.
Please enjoy the following excerpts from each of our Flash Writing Challenge winners:
Mallika Ahuja
Mallika is a student in the MS in Integrated Marketing program. The following excerpt is from her poem titled Remembrance.
I see the yellowed buildings
Crumble into themselves like paper
The curtains drawn closed
I wonder if what’s inside
Will ever get out
I see the flame
Dark and thick and red
Running down unhinged curves
Ashes follow in her wake
Of all the lives she's burnt between two sets of teeth
And with a wisp of smoke, she was gone
Ashes. Like fireworks dying in the light of dawn.
Adam Richardson
Adam is a student in the MS in Translation and Interpreting program. The following excerpt is from his essay titled How One Day Became My Entire Life.
I was not yet 16 when I watched those horrible events unfold live on television in front of my eyes. I had no idea just how I would be affected by this. How my life would be shaped by the wars that followed, or how I would come to find healing in helping the afflicted of this conflict. There was no greater moment in my history because in the wake of it all my life and my tragedies and victories were carried along with it.
…
Ages have passed since my deployment in 2010. I retired from the Navy. Before COVID shut us down I had started working with refugees at IRC. It brought me peace to help heal, in some small way, the wounds of the war I so eagerly volunteered for. Now I am translating for the victims of that great cataclysm as they come to my shores.
We thank Mallika, Adam, and everyone that shared a 9/11 reflection with us. The MS in Professional Writing program will host another Flash Writing Challenge as part of the upcoming NYUSPS Spirit Week. Please stay tuned for that open invitation.
To learn more about the MS in Professional Writing program, please visit sps.nyu.edu/mspw