Public Information and Communication
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 2, 2018
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Young Nebraskans Win Writing
Competition
Do young people still write letters? They do if they want to
tell an author about how books can make a difference in a young
person’s life. Young Nebraska writers who wrote winning letters
in the Letters About Literature competition received
award certificates from Gov. Pete Ricketts on
at a proclamation-signing ceremony celebrating National Library
Week, April 8-14, 2018. 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, Houchen Bindery Ltd., Humanities
Nebraska, and Chapters Bookstore in Seward.
Young Nebraska writers to be honored are:
Winners
Avery Yosten, Norfolk, for a letter to Rob Buyea
Caleb Hans, Omaha, for a letter to Trenton Lee
Stewart
Harper Leigh Wells, Axtell, for a letter to
Harper Lee
Alternate Winners
Ryan Ostrander, Lincoln, for a letter to Katherine
Applegate
Conleigh Hemmer, Lincoln, for a letter to
Herman Melville
Daniel Con, Lexington, for a letter to Suzanne
Collins
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 are honored at a luncheon and receive
cash prizes and gift certificates. Their winning letters are
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 about the competition 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
.