Westlake Writer Places in Ohio Library of Congress Letter Writing Contest

A Lee Burneson Middle School seventh-grade student won third place in her age group in the state in the Library of Congress’ Letters About Literature Contest.

Lillie Forbes’ letter to Shelley Pearsall, author of “Crooked River,” was chosen out of more than 1,200 entries. She was named to the Top 20 in the state. Other LBMS writers who advanced in the Top 20 included Ashley Rocky, Natalie Farrag, Amelia Kollar, Michelle Ho, Katrina Black and Allie Chang. Dover Intermediate School writers Carson Tucholski and Vince Bawter also were state finalists whose letters were among the top 5 percent.

Lillie will be honored at an awards ceremony on May 12 at the Cleveland Public Library.

Deb Schrembeck’s and Sara Latkowski’s LBMS Language Arts classes, and Donna Dieterich’s DIS classes, participated in the reading and writing contest. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels.

There were 3,036 entries from Ohio, including 1,213 at the middle school level and 1,017 from grades 4-6. Nationally, about 8,000 letters make it to state-level judging.

Only first-place state winners advance to national competition. All of the state finalist letters will be forwarded to living authors in hopes of a personal reply. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter the Letters About Literature contest each year.