FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 3, 2013
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Young Nebraska writers will receive Letters about Literature award certificates from
Gov. Dave Heineman on April 10, 2013 at a proclamation-signing ceremony celebrating National Library Week, April 14-20, 2013. Letters about Literature is a national reading and writing promotion program. The competition encourages young people to read, be inspired, and write back to the author who had an impact on their lives.
This annual contest is sponsored nationally by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. 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
- Young-Joon Park, Elkhorn, for a letter to Arthur Miller for Death of a Salesman
- Shannon Chinn, Omaha, for a letter to Ray Bradbury for Fahrenheit 451
- Sydney Miller, Lincoln, for a letter to Sharon Draper for Out of My Mind
Alternate Winners
- Allie Thompson, Omaha, for a letter to Kathryn Stockett for The Help
- Cole Shank, Lincoln, for a letter to Kathleen Benner Duble for Phantoms in the Snow
- William Conrad, Lincoln, for a letter to Charles Dickens for David Copperfield
The students wrote personal letters to the 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, receive cash prizes and gift certificates, and 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 Nebraska’s 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.
