Young Readers Write Their Literary Heroes

     They weren’t fan mail letters, but they did net their writers a reward. Anne Arundel residents Vivien Kaplan and Storrie Kulynych-Irvin both received prizes for their submissions to the 2019 Letters About Literature contest. 

     Letters About Literature, a Library of Congress program coordinated by Maryland Humanities, asks students to write to the author of a book, poem, short story, essay or speech to express how the work changed their view of the world or themselves. The 101 state finalists were honored at a ceremony May 4 in Baltimore. 

     Kaplan, the Level One (grades 4-6) runner-up, is a student at Key School in Annapolis and wrote her letter to author Lauren Wolk about the book Wolf Hollow. Homeschooled Kulynych-Irvin earned the runner-up prize in Level Two (grades 7-8) for her letter to Helena Kelly about her book Jane Austen, the Secret Radical. 

     Nearly 1,500 Maryland students entered the contest this year. First-place winners for each level advance to the national competition.