From the New Mexico State Library

Letters About Literature 2017

 New Mexico’s Letters About Literature 2017

     Letters About Literature encourages young readers to read a book and write a letter to the author about how the book changed their view of the world.  This is the fifth year New Mexico State Library has sponsored the competition.
     Readers in grades 4-12 write a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work shaped their perspective on the world or themselves.  Students may write about works of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.  Entries in Spanish will be accepted and translated for the New Mexico judges.  State judges will select the top letter writers in New Mexico, who then advance to the national competition.
     Letter writers compete at three levels: Level I is grades 4-6; Level II is grades 7-8; and Level III is grades 9-12. The one winning letter from each level from each state is entered into the final national competition. There will be cash prizes for the three state winners and also for the national winners.
Please click here to see and/or print the Letters About Literature participation guidelines and the entry form.
Level 3 entries must be postmarked by December 2, 2016.
Level 1 and 2 entries must be postmarked by January 9, 2017.
Teacher's Guide
Reflective Writing Assessment
For more information about New Mexico’s Letters About Literature contest, please email lori.thornton@state.nm.us or call Lori Thornton at 505-476-9717.
Letters About Literature is sponsored by the New Mexico State Library, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.  Letters About Literature is also sponsored by The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.
The Letters About Literature annual writing contest for young readers is made possible by a generous grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, with additional support from gifts to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which promotes the contest through its affiliate centers for the book, state libraries and other organizations.
To read about the Letters About Literature contest at the national level, please click here:
Letters About Literature – Center for the Book – Library of Congress

One of this year's winning letters to an author

  Check out the creative envelopes in which they sent their entries. Awesome! Readers Rock!