Writing Contests for Kids

Check out these two opportunities for kids ages kindergarten through high school.

Letters About Literature
Deadline: January 11, 2013

Letters About LIterature is a national reading and writing promotion program sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and presented in partnership with participating affiliate state centers for the book.

The contest, for kids 4th grade through 10th grade, invites readers to write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre–fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, contemporary or classic–explaining how that author’s work changed the student’s way of thinking about the world or themselves. This is not a book report; it’s an exercise in reflective writing.

Prizes are awarded in three age categories, at both the (participating) state and national level.

Read last year’s winning letters here.
Read more details and download an entry form here.

River of Words
Deadline: December 1, 2012

River of Words® (ROW) is a program of The Center for Environmental Literacy and a part of the Kalmanovitz School of Education at Saint Mary’s College of California.

ROW was co-founded in 1995 by writer and activist Pamela Michael and then-US Poet Laureate (and SMC alumnus) Robert Hass. One of the program’s most noteworthy events, conducted in affiliation with The Library of Congress Center for the Book, is a free, annual international poetry and art contest for children in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Grand Prize Winners of the 2013 River of Words contest will win a trip to San Francisco for the April 21st Youth Creativity Awards at the San Francisco Public Library. All winners and finalists will be invited to our May 7th Library of Congress Youth Creativity Awards in Washington, DC.

Check out the details on the appropriate entry form (Individual, Group, Facilitator) here.