Letters About Literature

Here is a great opportunity for the young book worms out there in grades 4 to 12 in Minnesota although parents should be sure to check in their own states for this opportunity since it is a national contest. The Minnesota Humanities Center, Target Corporation, Library of Congress, and Minnesota's "first newspaper" the Pioneer Press have partnered to sponsor the "Letters About Literature" contest.

For full details please visit -- http://www.minnesotahumanities.org/

The deadline is December 14, 2007

This contest is very straightforward -- students simply choose a book that "has meaning for them, reflect on it, and write a letter to the author explaining how the book changed the student's perspective................." Now this is a nice twist on the traditional "book report" that most of us experienced in our school days because here you send a letter to the book's author thus creating the opportunity to interact with the author.

Our children are too young for this contest but I've made a mental note to watch for these opportunities in the future.

Good luck kids,

Todd

Freedom in Fiction Prize

Opportunities like this one make me wish I had the ability to write a novel!! But as I tell me friends and family -- there is even fiction in my professional work so that is why I read mostly non-fiction books :-) -- thus I realize I am not a novelist.

However as a service to my readers out there I want to promote this contest which is managed by my friends as the highly-respected (unless you love Big Government!!) Mackinac Institute. Mackinac has issued a "Call for Book Proposal" for their US$10,000 Freedom in Action Prize. This international prize - --

"honors the best unpublished works of fiction with the greatest potential for imparting the ideas of free markets, liberty, and personal responsibility across a wide audience in a positive manner."

For more information on this opportunity please contact --

www.mackinac.org/freedominfiction
Mr. Justin W. Marshall
+1 989 631 0900
marshall@mackinac.org


Granted I rarely read fiction but will plan on reading the completed book chosen for this prize since having the freedom to read whatever book we want is one of the most fundamental for a free society.

Good luck to all aspiring authors,

Todd