Austin, TX – 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.
The theme of Letters About Literature is “Read. Be Inspired. Write Back.”
Students may have a strong connection to the theme of the work or with a particular character. They may write about challenging events in their lives that relate to a book they have read. The possibilities are limitless, and the Center looks forward to reading this year’s entries.
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.
Many thanks to the Texas Library and Archives Foundation for their support of the Letters About Literature Texas program.
Application information The online submission portal (https://xtexasstatelibrary.submittable.com/submit) will open on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. If you have not entered before, you will need to create a free Submittable account in order to apply. The deadline is 6 p.m. Central time on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.
Applications are accepted only through the portal. Students younger than age 13 must also submit a signed permission form in order to enter the contest.
To learn more about Letters About Literature Texas 2025-2026, including full rules and submission instructions, visit www.tsl.texas.gov/lettersaboutliterature. The site includes an Official Rules page and information about prizes.
Parents, guardians, educators and public and school librarians are encouraged to promote the contest to their students.
One of 50 state centers affiliated with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Texas Center for the Book is under the direction of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. For more information contact Michele Chan Santos at mcsantos@tsl.texas.gov or visit tsl.texas.gov/centerforthebook.
