Letters About Literature contest winners announced

The Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana announced the 2018 Louisiana winners of the annual Letters About Literature contest. This year, 562 fourth through 12th grade Louisiana students wrote personal letters to authors, living or dead, to thank them and to explain how their work changed the students’ way of thinking about the world or themselves. The winners of the competition were inspired by everything from fiction to nonfiction, classic to contemporary, fantasy to historical, work in translation to books in a series.

Students receive $100 for first place, $75 for second place, and $50 for third place, and they will be recognized at the Louisiana Book Festival on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Baton Rouge, with the first place winners reading their letters there. Louisiana’s first place winners’ entries have been submitted to the Library of Congress for the national competition. To read the winners’ letters and see the names of all the state finalists and their teachers and schools, visit www.state.lib.la.us.

Level I (grades 4 – 6)

1st Place: Kadra J. Bates, Copper Mill Elementary, Zachary

2nd Place: Evelyn Deroche, Copper Mill Elementary, Zachary

3rd Place: Alexis Williams, Copper Mill Elementary, Zachary 

Honorable Mention:  Joey Roth, Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge

Level II (grades 7 – 8)

1st Place: Jenee Brown, Northwestern Middle School, Zachary

2nd Place: Eleanor Guichet, Lusher Charter School, New Orleans

3rd Place: Acadia McCoy, Lusher Charter School, New Orleans

Honorable Mention:  Rocco Salamone, Lusher Charter School, New Orleans

Level III (grades 9 – 12)

1st Place: Khoa Pham, Individual Submission, Breaux Bridge

2nd Place: Isabella Mariano, Cedar Creek School, Ruston

3rd Place: Sarah Katherine McCallum, Cedar Creek School, Ruston         

Letters About Literature is made possible by a grant from the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which promotes and administers the contest through its affiliate state centers for the book, state libraries, and other organizations.

In Louisiana, the contest is made possible by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana with additional assistance from the Louisiana Writing Project and the Louisiana Library and Book Festival Foundation. Funding for prizes is provided by the Library of Congress grant.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.