{"id":197264,"date":"2023-04-10T10:56:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T14:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=197264"},"modified":"2024-03-11T13:48:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T17:48:19","slug":"connecticuts-2023-letters-about-literature-contest-winners-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/04\/connecticuts-2023-letters-about-literature-contest-winners-named\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut\u2019s 2023 Letters About Literature Contest Winners Named"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Neag School of Education<\/a>,\u00a0UConn\u2019s Department of English<\/a>, and the\u00a0Connecticut Writing Project (CWP)<\/a>, co-sponsors of the 30th annual Letters About Literature<\/a>\u00a0contest, are proud to announce Connecticut\u2019s winners for the 2022-23 academic year.<\/p>\n

Each year, students in grades four through 12 are invited to read a text, broadly defined, and write a letter to the author (living or dead) about how the text affected them personally. Submissions are grouped according to grade level (grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and grades 9-12).<\/p>\n

All submissions were read and scored by Neag School alumni teacher-volunteers. Of the 849 submissions from Connecticut students this year, there were 251 students who received honorable mentions<\/a> and 494 semi-finalists<\/a>. Each Letters About Literature semi-finalist and honorable mention recipient received a letter of recognition.<\/p>\n

A second set of judges, all pre-service teachers, then read and scored the 81 finalists<\/a> \u2014 twice for each submission \u2014 and selected a total of nine winners, three per grade level. Then one student per grade level was named Top Prize. Each of the nine winners will receive a gift card. The six winners get $100 each and the three Top Prize winners get $200 each. The winning recipients will be recognized at a ceremony at the Capitol Building on April 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neag School associate professor Doug Kaufman<\/a>, CWP director Jason Courtmanche<\/a>, and Department of English Ph.D. candidate Margaret McFarlane served as the contest\u2019s representatives for the state of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

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Letters About Literature Finalists for the State of Connecticut<\/h2>\n

The following are the contest finalists, listed with their respective school\u2019s and teacher\u2019s names, as well as the work of literature that is the focus of their essay, with access to their winning submissions in PDF format.<\/p>\n

Level I (Grades 4-6)<\/h3>\n