Letters About Literature

Have you ever loved a book so much that you had to let the author know?  That they were the only person who would understand how you felt?  Letters About Literature is a program where students in grades 4 through 12 write a letter to an author explaining how that author’s work impacted them.

The Letters can be written about works from any genre, fiction or nonfiction by authors from the present or the past. Students can write about a book, short story, poem, or speech.

The program is sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.  The Iowa Center for the Book is the Iowa sponsor.

Iowa first place winners win $75. Second and third place winners win $50.  Honorable Mention winners win $25.

The deadline for high school students is December 15, 2014. The deadline for elementary and middle school students is January 15, 2015. You can learn more at the Iowa Center for the Book website and read last year's winning entries at http://www.iowacenterforthebook.org/letters

But maybe you don't want to enter the contest and just want to write a letter to your favorite author.  We have a database that can help with that.  To access it, go to http://www.icpl.org/resources/ scroll down and click on “Contemporary Authors.”  Contemporary Authors has a lot of interesting information about more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.  For example, you can search "Lowry, Lois," and it will list info about awards she has won, her bibliography and personal information including a home address.  So, you could write a letter about how The Giver is your absolute favorite book of all time.  Wouldn't that be awesome?