Young Nebraska writers will receive Letters about Literature award
certificates from
Gov. Pete Ricketts on April 6,
2016 at a proclamation-signing ceremony celebrating National Library
Week, April 10-16, 2016. Letters about Literature is a national
reading and writing promotion program. Nearly 50,000 adolescent and
young readers nationwide in grades four through twelve participated
in this year’s Letters about Literature program, hundreds of them
from Nebraska. The competition encourages young people to read, be
inspired, and write back to the author (living or dead) who had an
impact on their lives.
This annual contest is sponsored nationally by the Center for the
Book in the Library of Congress, with funding from Dollar General
Literacy Foundation. The Center for the Book was established in 1977
as a public-private partnership to use the resources of the Library
of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. The
Nebraska competition is coordinated and sponsored by the Nebraska
Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, and Houchen
Bindery Ltd.
Young Nebraska writers to be honored are:
Winners
Conleigh Hemmer, Lincoln, for a letter to Patricia
McKissack
Madeline Walker, Lincoln, for a letter to Ray
Bradbury
Colette Mahr, Chadron, for a letter to Laurie Halse
Anderson
Alternate Winners
Carson Bredemeier, Falls City, for a letter to
Laura Hillenbrand
Janna Marley, Lincoln, for a letter to Kate
DiCamillo
Julia Briones, Lexington, for a letter to Khaled
Hosseini
The students wrote personal letters to authors explaining how his or
her work changed their view of themselves or the world. They
selected authors from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary
or classic. Winners were chosen from three competition levels: upper
elementary, middle, and secondary school.
The Nebraska winners will be honored at a luncheon and receive cash
prizes and gift certificates. Their winning letters will be placed
in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at Bennett
Martin Public Library in Lincoln. They will advance to the national
competition, with a chance to win a trip to Washington, D.C. for
themselves and their parents. For more information see
http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/LAL.html.
The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library
Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers,
booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and
scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to
celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the
written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the
Nebraska Library Commission. As the state library agency, the
Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and
information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library
Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of
library and information services, bringing together people and
information.
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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library
Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website,
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.