Public Information and Communication
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 13, 2017
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Young Readers Invited to Write to
Favorite Authors
Young readers in grades 4-12 are invited to write a personal
letter to an author for the Letters about Literature (LAL) contest, a
national reading and writing promotion program. The letter can be to any
author (living or dead) from any genre-fiction or nonfiction, contemporary
or classic-explaining how that author’s work changed the student’s view of
the world. The 25th annual reflective writing competition is sponsored by
the Library of Congress Center for the Book and presented in association
with affiliate State Centers for the Book with funding provided by the
Dollar General Literacy Foundation. Letters About Literature is coordinated
and sponsored in Nebraska by the Nebraska Center for the Book and the
Nebraska Library Commission, with support from Houchen Bindery, Ltd.,
Humanities Nebraska, and Chapters Bookstore in Seward.
Prizes will be awarded on both the state and national levels. The Nebraska
Center for the Book’s panel of judges will select the top letter writers in
the state, to be honored in a proclamation-signing ceremony at the state
capitol during National Library Week in April 2018. Their winning letters
will be placed in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at
Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln. Nebraska winners will receive
state prizes, and then advance to the national judging.
A panel of national judges for the Center for the Book in the Library of
Congress will select one National Winner per competition level (Level I for
grades 4-6, Level II for grades 7-8, and Level III for grades 9-12) to
receive a $1,000 cash award, to be announced in May 2018. The judges will
also select one National Honor winner on each competition level to receive a
$200 cash award.
Teachers, librarians, and parents can download free teaching materials on
reader response and reflective writing, along with contest details and entry
forms, at
www.read.gov/letters.
Nebraska-specific information (including lists of Nebraska winners of past
competitions) is available at
http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/LAL.html. Get inspired by
listening to Nebraska winners, Ashley Xiques and Sydney Kohl, read and talk
about and their winning letters to authors that meant something to them in
their own lives, see NET Radio’s All About Books (
http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/radio/all-about-books).
Submissions must be postmarked by December 9, 2017. For more information
contact
Mary Jo Ryan, 402-471-3434 or 800-307-2665.
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
.