LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE

About the Contest

2018-2019 Documents

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. If you are in grades 4-12, you are eligible to enter the Letters About Literature reading and writing contest.

For the first time, students are asked to submit their 2018-2019 letters via the Letters About Literature online platform. Entries will be accepted starting Nov. 1, 2018.  The deadline for all Alabama entries is Jan. 11, 2019.

Students may enter the contest individually or teachers may submit their classroom entries.

All Alabama entries will be judged first by Alabama judges.  There will be a first, second and third place winner in each of the three levels.  First place winners will receive a $100 gift card, second place winners will receive a $75 gift card and third place winners will receive a $50 gift card.  All semi-finalists will receive a certificate.

The three first place winning entries will then advance to the national competition. National winners in each competition level will receive a $2,000 cash award. National honorable mention winners in each competition level will receive a $500 cash award.

The Alabama Award Ceremony will be held on May 19, 2019, in Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library on the campus of The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  All semi-finalists, winners and their families will be invited to attend.  Guest speaker will be children’s author Charles Ghigna better known as Father Goose®. Ghigna is the author of more than 5,000 poems and 100 award-winning books.

The 2018-19 Letters About Literature contest for young readers is made possible by a generous grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, with additional support from gifts to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which promotes the contest through its affiliate Centers for the Book, state libraries and other organizations.

For additional information, please contact Donna Adcock, dbadcock@ua.edu, state coordinator.

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