Read. Be Inspired. Write Back.

University Park, PA -- Write a letter to your favorite author, and you might win an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. for yourself, your parents, and your teacher! The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest.

To enter, readers must write a personal letter to an author, explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves. Young readers can select authors from any genre—fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6, Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III for grades 9 through 12. More than 100 judges across the country will select the state winners at each competition level. State winners advance to national competition and receive cash prizes plus a $50 Target gift card.

Six national winners will each receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the nation's capitol to read their letters during the National Book Festival in fall 2004. In addition, they will receive a $500 Target gift card redeemable at any Target store or target.com. Target Stores is the presenting sponsor of Letters About Literature. Weekly Reader Corporation, publisher of children's classroom periodicals, is a program sponsor. Target Stores, along with its parent company Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), gives back more than $2 million a week to its local communities through grants and special programs. Since opening its first store in 1962, Target has partnered with nonprofit organizations, guests, and team members to help meet community needs.

In addition to the national competition, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book will also recognize a statewide essayist in each of the grade level groups with a cash prize. Judges for the Pennsylvania portion of Letters About Literature are: Judy Smith, a teacher at Shippensburg Area Middle School; Liz Jenkins, English Department Internship Coordinator at Penn State; Dallas DiLeo, Manager of the Main Library Services at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; Ruth Zeisloft, an eleventh-grade advanced-placement English teacher in Erie, Pennsylvania; and Susan Campbell Bartoletti, a writer from Moscow, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania winners will be recognized at the Children's Literature Matters Conference at Penn State on May 8, 2004.

All information and applications for this year's Letters About Literature contest can be accessed by going to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book Web site: www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu and clicking on the "Letters About Literature Contest" link or to the Library of Congress Web site: www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters.html and clicking on the "Letters About Literature 2004" link. This year's deadline for submissions is December 6, 2003. For more information, please contact Steven Herb at 814-863-2141.

***

Editor's Contact:
Andrew Calvin, 814-865-0401