You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
The Texas Center for the Book is delighted to announce the opening of the Letters About Literature Texas writing contest for 2025-2026. Texas 4th through 12th graders are invited to participate in this annual writing competition.
Students select a book, book series, essay, play, poem, short story or speech and write a letter to an author-living or dead-explaining how his or her work changed their view of themselves or the world. There are three categories of competition: grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and grades 9-12. The contest is open to all Texas students, including public, private, and homeschool. First-place winners receive $300. Second-place winners receive $200, and third-place winners receive $100.
Additionally, the Center will give $300 grants to the school libraries of each first-place winner (or for homeschoolers, their public library.) First-place winners will also receive a travel stipend ($400) to go towards travel to the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Houston in March 2026. The winning students will be recognized in a ceremony at the conference.
More information about the contest is available at www.tsl.texas.gov/lettersaboutliterature.
The deadline to submit a letter is 6:00 p.m. Central time on Monday, January 26, 2026.
A new statewide public opinion poll conducted by KRC Research on behalf of the Texas Library Association confirms that Texans overwhelmingly value public libraries as essential public services.
This month’s episode of the Texas Library Association’s podcast explores a powerful idea: What if the most impactful STEM learning in a school isn’t happening in a lab, but in the library?
