Sweetwater County School District #1

Hello Everyone,

It is that time of year!   The Young Author's contest for the 2021-2022 school year is underway.

My name is Kena Wolf, and I am the district coordinator for the contest. I am also the Kinderboost teacher at Desert View Elementary.  I can be reached at school at 352-3200 (you’ll need to leave me a message) or by email wolfk@sw1.k12.wy.us.   Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time with questions that you may have. I am excited to assist in this process and look forward to receiving the entries from your students. I am asking that you encourage your students to participate in this wonderful experience.

Let me begin by giving you some general information. The contest is open to all students in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. Fiction, nonfiction and poetry entries are accepted. The deadline for entries to reach me is February 25, 2022. This will give the judges time to score the entries and get them to the County committee. I have attached all the necessary forms you will need for your students’ entries. I also attached the County guidelines for the contest. I would encourage you to read over them very carefully to ensure that your students meet all of the requirements. We will send one entry representing fiction, nonfiction and poetry from each grade level to county.  There is not a state level competition this year.  However, our district and county are excited to recognize our amazing authors!

I want to touch base on some of the common mistakes so that no entries will be disqualified.  Please check your students’ entry.

• Fiction/Nonfiction books may not exceed 4,000 words. If it is over 3,000 words a word count must accompany the entry.
• A book of poetry may either be an epic poem or a collection of exactly five poems, and must include a table of contents.
• A book of poems should not include the word poem in the title.
• An author’s name should not appear on the book.
• All books should be in book form and no larger than 9” x 12”.
• All books should have a front cover with a title, and a back cover, which is not part of the text.
• A Young Author entry form must be included with the entry. If you do not want to attach it to the work, you can use a library pocket card.
• Illustrations are part of the book.  I encourage you to be creative!

At the District Level, prizes will be awarded to one First, Second and Third place entry per grade, per category. At the County Level, prizes will be awarded to one First place and two honorable mentions entries per grade, per category. The district celebration will be held on March 10th, at 6:00pm. I will announce the date, time and place of the county celebration as that information becomes available (we are looking at late March). 

Again, if you would like more information or you have questions you can contact me anytime.

I look forward to reading your students’ entries.

Sincerely,

Kena Wolf

COMING SOON!