Award-Winning Writers

Karen Mihata’s eighth-grade English class had a writing assignment a bit different from others this year. Instead of writing an essay for Mihata to grade, the class wrote essays to authors as part of a national writing contest. “As writers, we must keep our audience in mind to be successful, and students have lots of experience writing for teachers,” explains Mihata. “This contest allows me to provide my eighth graders a different audience—a more authentic one.”

Letters About Literature is a contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and then write to the author of the piece about how the book affected them personally. Mihata tasked her class to participate in the Washington State level and two of her students were recognized! Riya S. (’22) won first place for Washington State and Egor A. (’22) was named a semifinalist.

Riya wrote to Katty Kay and Claire Shipman about their book The Confidence Code. Her letter was chosen from among 856 letters submitted by seventh and eighth graders in Washington. “Riya’s success reflects not only excellent writing skills but also her ability to select a meaningful topic for these judges in today’s climate,” says Mihata.

Riya will be honored at a ceremony in Olympia on May 11th and receive $125 award. Her letter has been sent to the Library of Congress to compete in the national round of this competition where one letter will be chosen from each state.

Mihata’s classes seem to have a track history in this competition. While it has been awhile since she has had her class participate in the content, the last time they did, Stephen Hitchcock, who graduated in 2014, wrote a letter to Jules Verne and won at the state level.