NH Letters About Literature 2019

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which has provided support and all the funding for Letters About Literature to the NH Center since 2004 notified all the state Centers for the Book in mid-June that they are ending the program:

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress is proud of the 27 years it has sponsored the Letters About Literature program with affiliated Centers for the Book. This national reading and writing competition, which has touched more than one million students, has been a source of much joy and inspiration at the nation’s library. We are grateful for your unflagging support of this initiative.

I write to let you know that, after much analysis and reflection, the Library has decided that Letters About Literature will conclude with the 2018-2019 program. The Library has developed a new Strategic Plan, and must focus its resources in direct support of that Plan.   

 After receiving this notice the NH Center for the Book Advisory Board discussed the issue and determined that without the financial support of the Library of Congress we are unable to offer this program to New Hampshire students for the 2019-2020 school year.

Letters About Literature is a program that supports reading and the thoughtful consideration of how literature relates to our lives and we would like to see it continue in our state. There are several state Centers planning to fund and manage the program within their own states in the coming school year. The NH Center will be looking at whether we can find the resources to resume the program, following the model being created now by other state centers, for the fall of 2020. If this proves possible we will make announcements about our plans by early May 2020.

National LAL Winners

The Library of Congress has announced the 2019 winners of the National Letters About Literature competition.
More than 29,000 students from across the country participated in this year’s initiative. The contest is promoted by the Library’s Center for the Book through its affiliated state centers, state libraries, state humanities councils and other organizations.

Congratulations to the 2019 NH LAL Winners!

• Sofia Bergskaug, a student at Captain Samuel Douglass Academy, wrote the letter that was selected as the 2019 Level I NH winning letter to Sharon M. Draper.
• Madelyn Bergen, a student at Milford Middle School, wrote the 2019 Level II NH winning letter to Laurie Halse Anderson.
• Nilaani Pazhaniappan, a student at Nashua High School South, wrote the 2019 Level III NH winning letter to Jennifer Niven. 

The 2019 NH winning letters are linked from the LAL webpage. Prizes will be sent to each of the NH winners at the end of the week and their letters have advanced to the National Letters About Literature competition.

Info about the 2020 Letters About Literature competition will be available this summer.

Congratulations to the 2019 NH LAL Semi-Finalists!

Level 1 (grades 4-6)

• Teagan Arborgast
• Sofia Bergskaug
• Giada Bourassa
• Sophia Brickner
• Jacob Brien
• Taylor Christle
• Kiren Cook
• Angelina Costa
• Julian Crespo
• Emma DiGennaro
• Mercedes Gavin
• Colby Hallett
• James Kelly
• Avery Labatte
• Grace Lebiedz
• Brady Paris
• Madeline Sullivan
• Molly Topliff
• Abigail Wallis
• Jonah Winsor

Level 2 (grades 7-8)

• Daniella Allanach
• Marcus Anderson
• James Barrett
• Madelyn Bergen
• Aden Cremonini
• Owen Johnson
• Lucas Kachadorian
• Colby Lajoie
• Eden Leak
• Jacob Lydon
• Jaidyn Malette
• Mackenzie O´Connor
• Auburn Rafferty
• Aarika Roy
• Hannah Stec
• Grace Webb

Level 3 (grades 9-12)

• Victoria Arrigo
• Ava Blair
• Abigail Foley
• Raizel Hernandez
• Emily Jastrem
• Nilaani Pazhaniappan
• Rease St. Gelais
• Megan Swedberg
• Bryna Wilson
• Paige Witherbee

Please note that there were 2 additional students whose letters were selected as semi-finalists. As of 4/12/19 we had not received permission to announce their names.

New Hampshire's winning letters will be selected from these semi-finalist letters and announced at the end of April. The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library will award $100 to each first place winner. State winners will advance to the national Letters About Literature competition.  If you want to get the latest LAL news, you can subscribe to LAL news email feed at the NH Letters About Literature page.

NOTE: This post was updated (4/12/19) to add the names of additional students once their release forms were received.

LAL: Online Entries

Beginning this year there is an online submission platform for Letters About Literature entries set up by the Library of Congress. The online Submittable form went live yesterday. To see what the process looks like before you begin submitting, check out this video from the Library of Congress.

We encourage everyone to use this method of entering Letters About Literature if they can, but the New Hampshire competition will accept paper entries this year. Details are on the NH LAL page.

Letters About Literature Update

Entry information for this year is now available at Letters About Literature. New Hampshire students in grades 4-12 are invited to enter and we encourage everyone to use the Library of Congress's new online submission form which will open at the end of this week.  

Students who will not yet be 13 years old on November 1, 2018 will need to have a permission form signed by their parent or guardian to enter (even if they enter by mailing us their letter). We encourage teachers to get these sent home and signed ahead of time.

Online entry is a new process for Letters About Literature and the Library of Congress has compiled some teacher's resources which you may find useful in planning for this year's entries. There is an option for New Hampshire students to enter via snail mail which requires a new national entry coupon (and a permission slip for students under 13). The NH Center put together some notes on completing the new coupon. If you are using the online entry you system you don't need a coupon at all as the information will put entered directly.

We hope that the online process will go smoothly, but it is new and there may be some bumps along the way. Please get in touch if you have problems entering. All NH entries must be completed online or postmarked by midnight on December 14, 2018.

Letters About Literature 2019

Letters About Literature will be happening here in New Hampshire this year and the Center for the Book at the NH State Library is very pleased to be partnering with Franklin Pierce University to coordinate the New Hampshire Letters About Literature competition.

The Library of Congress, which coordinates the national competition, has moved the competition online beginning this year, which has necessitated a lot of changes behind the scenes and resulted in delays in getting things out to students and teachers.  The forms and links are almost ready and will be posted on our website as soon as they are complete and correct.

Here are the basics for 2019:

• The deadline for entries from NH will be December 14, 2018

• There will be 3 competition levels, the same as in previous years

•  You can enter  using an online submission form which will be available starting November 1, 2018

• Students who are not yet 13 as of 11/1/18 will have to have a permission form signed by a parent or guardian submitted with their entry. The necessary form will be available on our website shortly.

• New Hampshire students who cannot use the online submission form, for whatever reason, can mail their entries (including an entry coupon--which will be available on our website shortly--and the signed permission form if they are under 13) to 
  Letters About Literature
  Center for the Book at NHSL
  20 Park Street
  Concord, NH 03301

We appreciate your patience with the changes to the competition this year and look forward to hearing from New Hampshire students about the books that affected them.

Congratulations to the 2018 NH LAL Winners!

• Julianna Kajka, a fifth grader at Hampstead Middle School, wrote the letter that was selected as the 2018 Level I NH winning letter to Sara Pennypacker.
  
• Brianna Leo, a student at Milford Middle School, wrote the 2018 Level II NH winning letter to Ben Mikaelsen.
  
• Stephanie Chambers, an eleventh grader at Prospect Mountain High School (Alton), wrote the 2018 Level III NH winning letter to Stephen Chbosky. 

Info about the 2019 Letters About Literature competition will be available later this summer.

Congratulations to the 2018 NH LAL Semi-Finalists!

• Joshua Army, Milford
• Anya Bakin, Durham
• Rylie Blanchard, Pembroke
• Jensen Casassa, Exeter
• Ruth Cassidy, Nashua
• Ryan Cavanaugh, Milford
• Rosalyn Caza, Pembroke
• Jake Demers, Pembroke
• Colin Gregg, Milford
• Matthew Harry, Somersworth
• Johnathan Holler, Pembroke
• Emily Johnston, Londonderry
• Julianna Kajka, Hampstead
• Andrew Kelly, Durham
• Brianna Leo, Milford
• Joshua Ma, Nashua
• Samantha MacAvoy, Atkinson
• Carson Morgan, Somersworth
• Paeton Moul, Milford
• Nancy Poore, Exeter
• Caroline Raiano, Milford
• Jaden Russell, Pembroke
• Alexander Shutt, Hollis
• Elisabeth Stapelfeld, Hollis
• Greta Stevens, Exeter
• Michaela Thibault, Exeter
• Olivia Wood, Exeter
• Mehli Yoder, Somersworth
• Alyssa Zimont, Pembroke

 Please note that there were 2 other students whose letters were selected as semi-finalists. As of this afternoon we had not received permission to announce their names.   

New Hampshire's winning letters will be selected from these semi-finalist letters and announced in early May. The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library will award $100 to each first place winner. State winners will advance to the national Letters About Literature competition.  If you want to get the latest LAL news, you can subscribe to LAL news email feed at the NH Letters About Literature page.