WYOMING — Know a gradeschool bookworm?
Wyoming students in grades four through 12 can enter the Wyoming Letters About Literature Contest now through March 1, 2024.
Interested students should select a novel, nonfiction book, short story, poem, play, essay, graphic novel or speech that inspires strong feelings in them, and then write a letter addressed to the author of that work that explains how the piece has changed the student’s life.
“It might be a work that helped you through a difficult time, or it might be one that simply touched your heart or inspired you,” the contest’s guidelines state. “How did this author’s work change you or your view of the world? Consider how it influenced your identity or thinking, or how you see your community and your place in it…Support your ideas with specific details both from the book and from your life. This is not a fan letter, a book summary or a letter about the author.”
Last year’s winners wrote letters to authors including Alexandre Dumas, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anthony Burgess, Mitch Albom and more.
The contest, sponsored by Wyoming Humanities, will be judged in three age categories: grades four through six, grades seven and eight and grades nine through 12. Winners from each category will receive gift cards to Bookshop.org. Entries from individuals and entire classrooms are eligible.
See contest guidelines and submit letters here.
