Letters About Literature, the
Library of Congress Center for the Book national reading and writing contest
for students sponsored on the state level by the Louisiana Center for the Book
in the State Library of Louisiana, is now accepting entries. To enter, fourth through 12th grade students
write personal letters to authors, living or dead, from any genre explaining
how what they read changed the student’s view of the world or themselves and
submit their letters to the national headquarters.
The national LAL team will choose up to 50 entries in each level
from each state; from those, Louisiana finalists will be chosen by a panel of
judges from throughout the state. Louisiana’s first place winners’ entries will
then be submitted to the Library of Congress for the national competition with
the chance of winning $1,000.
Louisiana state winners in each level, to be announced in April,
will receive $100 for
first place, $75 for second place and $50 for third place and will be recognized at next year’s Louisiana Book Festival,
scheduled for Nov. 1, 2014.
Students may enter through their school or local library or on
their own in one of three levels: level 1 for grades 4-6, level 2 for grades
7-8 and level 3 for grades 9-12.
The student’s letter and entry coupon must be sent directly to Letters About Literature, P.O.
Box 5308, Woodbridge, VA 22194. The postmark deadline for level 3 is Dec. 10,
2013; for levels 1 and 2, it is Jan. 10, 2014. Please do not send the
entries to the Louisiana Center for the Book; they cannot be forwarded or
returned.
The
Louisiana Letters About Literature contest is made possible by the Louisiana
Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana in partnership with the
Louisiana Writing Project.