Every year, I’m again amazed at the hundreds of writers in Colorado who are willing to put their egos on the line, be subjected to deadlines and grumpy editors and shifting publication schedules – all for the mere glory of seeing their names in print.
The explosion of the Internet has provided a seemingly endless variety of platforms for budding writers or anyone with an opinion.
So we’re flattered that 370 of you sought our platform and tried out for Colorado Voices this year.
The program is our way of letting you do the talking, of bringing more friends to the table and “chatting” over a cuppa. It’s something we do for each other. We provide the winners with an editor who loves to work with non-professionals and to help them fine-tune their voices. In turn, the writers get to speak for regions, ethnic backgrounds, social tiers, genders, income levels and themselves, giving readers as many different points of view as possible.
That, to us, is priceless.
The Post’s opinion pages are more than just syndicated national columnists and cartoonists; they are you. And in this era of a morphing newspaper industry, we want to keep representing you and giving you a voice.
We’re proud of the Colorado Voices program, which has showcased the words of 130 of your neighbors since 1999 and continues to be one of the most popular features of our op-ed pages. We think it’s important to continue giving readers the chance to vie for a spot in our writing program, and to give readers the opportunity to send letters to openforum@denverpost.com or participate in the 20-some blogs on denverpost.com.
We’re also proud of the hard work done by our volunteer judges: former Post travel editor Mim Swartz, retired editorial board member Pete Chronis, Colorado Voices alum Louise Turnbull, and reader judges Bobby Haas and Katy Craig.
Our Class of 2008 debuts today, beginning with a column on page 6E by Marcia Darnell of Alamosa, who writes about her disability with humor and candor.
We think her voice – and those of all the others pictured here – is worth listening to.
Barbara Ellis can be reached at bellis@denverpost.com or 303-954-1751.
