MONTANA LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE CONTEST WINNERS

 
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Missoula–June 4, 2015

 
Students from Bozeman, Choteau, Hysham, Livingston, Lolo, Missoula, and Sun River captured top honors in this year’s Montana Letters About Literature writing contest. Judges selected the winning entries from 292 submissions statewide in three separate age categories.
 
Letters About Literature is a reading and writing promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and is sponsored at the state level by Humanities Montana and the Montana Center for the Book.
 
Every fall, young readers across Montana write a personal letter to an author whose book has especially affected them. Children write about being inspired to pursue their dreams, appreciate friends and family, and imagine possibilities. A panel of judges read about how literature teaches young people to empathize with others and overcome hardships. These letters are submitted to a national contest for a chance to win state and national prizes and winners are recognized across the Montana each spring. First place letters can be read online at www.humanitiesmontana.org/programs/lal/.
 
The state winners in the three age categories are:
 
Level 1 — grades 4-6
  • First place — Sula Duncan, Livingston, wrote to Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Big Sky
  • Second place — Eden Larmoyeux, Havre, wrote to Spencer Johnson, author of Who Moved My Cheese
  • Third place — Sage Besset, Missoula, wrote to Allie Brosh, author of Hyperbole and a Half
Level 2 — grades 7-8
  • First place — Christopher "Kit" Munson, Bozeman, wrote to Ray Bradbury, author of  Fahrenheit 451
  • Second place — Allyson Hitchcock, Sun River, wrote to Larry McMurtry, author of Dead Man's Walk
  • Third place — Heather Miller, Choteau, wrote to Louis Sachar, author of Holes
Level 3 — grades 9-12
  • First place — Marcene Piper Robison, Hysham, wrote to William Boniface, author of Mystery in Bugtown
  • Second place — Kincaid MacDonald, Missoula, wrote to Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • Third place — Brian Edwin Jakubowski, Lolo, wrote to Sherman Alexie, author of Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian
 
This year’s LAL state judges were young adult book author Blythe Woolston, Bradin Farnworth at Missoula Public Library, Connie Daugherty at Montana Technical College Library, and Samantha Dwyer at Humanities Montana. Guidelines for the 2016 Letters About Literature program will be posted in August on the Humanities Montana website.
 
Humanities Montana is the state’s independent nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1972, Humanities Montana has provided services and grants to hundreds of Montana organizations in support of public programs in history, literature, values, and public issues. Among its many programs are Speakers in the Schools, Letters About Literature, Community Conversations, and the Governor’s Humanities Awards.
 

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