![](http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/images/lal-title.gif)
Columbia, SC – The Letters About Literature program, sponsored by the South Carolina Center for the Book and the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores, is a national reading and writing promotion contest. To enter, readers write personal letters to an author, living or dead, from any genre, explaining how that author's work changed the students’ way of thinking about the world or themselves. State winners will be honored at a spring awards ceremony at the State Library’s South Carolina Center for the Book in Columbia with checks from the South Carolina State Library Foundation for $25 (3rd place), $50 (2nd place), and $100 (1st place). Additionally, all state 1st place winners will receive a $50 Target GiftCard. National Winners receive a $500 Target GiftCard and a $10,000 LAL Reading Promotion Grant for their School or Community Library. National Winners are also honored at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.
Last year, the South Carolina Center for the Book was pleased to recognize nine students from across the state:
Level I Winners
• 1st place Lindsay Pollard Clemson Elementary School
• 2nd place Will Anderson North Elementary School
• 3rd place Alysa Chirillo West Oak Middle School
Level II Winners
• 1st place Sinead Rose-Innes Riverside Middle School
• 2nd place D. J. Lee Dent Middle School
• 3rd place Kiana Knowlin Rosemary Middle School
Level III Winners
• 1st place Rhett Ricard Mid-Carolina High School
• 2nd place Katherine McCollough Academy for the Arts, Science & Technology
• 3rd place Danielle Lester Mid-Carolina High School
For participation guidelines and entry coupon, please visit http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters/ or contact one of the South Carolina coordinators:
Dr. Curtis R. Rogers, Director, SC Center for the Book, SC State Library, POB 11469, Columbia, SC 29211. crogers@statelibrary.sc.gov 803-734-8928.
Susanna Brailsford, Program Coordinator, SC Literary Arts Partnership, POB 5287, Columbia, SC 29250. SBrailsford@arts.sc.gov 803-771-2477.