Press Release

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Michele Alexander, Communications Manager 410.685.4186 | malexander@mdhc.org Facebook MHC YouTube Channel MHC on Pinterest

@mdhumanities Date: April 5, 2013

TWO KENT COUNTY STUDENTS AND ONE BALTIMORE CITY STUDENT TAKE FIRST PLACE IN THE 2013 LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE WRITING CONTEST Prince Georges County Teacher receives Christine D. Sarbanes Award
(Baltimore) - Three students have taken first place in the Maryland Letters About Literature letter writing contest. The State awards ceremony will take place April 13th at 11am during the CityLit Festival at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher Award, honoring a Maryland teacher who works to promote reading by employing creative teaching methods, will also be presented during the awards ceremony to Prince Georges county teacher Clinton Smith. Have you ever, after reading a book, wanted to tell the author how his or her words changed your life? Letters About Literature (LAL) is a state and national writing contest that encourages young readers in grades 4 to 10 to respond to an author through a letter expressing how that author and book changed their worldview and themselves. A signature program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Letters About Literature is implemented at the state level by the Maryland Center for the Book at the Maryland Humanities Council. This year, 1,768 students competed in Maryland, with 101 named as finalists. First-place winners on the state level receive a cash award and advance to the national competition in late April. Winners will recite their letters during the awards ceremony. The contest promotes reading and writing, inspires creativity, encourages life-long readers, and develops critical reading and writing skills that students need to be successful in life. Judges select top letters on three levels: Level I for young readers in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grade 7 and 8 readers, and Level III, for readers in grades 9 and 10. A panel of judges for the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress selects one national winner per competition level, each of whom will receive a $1,000 cash

prize. A second place winner will be selected for each competition level as well and will receive a $150 cash prize.

About our Honorees

To read the winning 2013 letters or to view a list of 2013 finalists, click here. In the youngest competition level, Level I (grades 4-6), Kent County Middle School sixth grader Jordan Rose won for his letter to Dr. Ben Carson for his book Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. Katie Buttarazzi, a sixth grader at Dumbarton Middle School in Baltimore County, was named as runner up in the Level I category for her letter about Eleanor Estes book The Hundred Dresses. Level II (grades 7 & 8) winner Elizabeth Macksey, an eighth grade student at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore City, will receive honors for her letter to Jerry Spinelli for his book, Stargirl. The runner up in this category is Nasier Bowyer, an eighth grader at Washington High School and Academy in Somerset County, for his letter to Derrick Barnes about his novel We Could Be Brothers. Courtney Sipes, a tenth grade student at Kent County High School, won in the Level III (grades 9 & 10) for her letter to Jay Asher for the book Thirteen Reasons. The runner up, Howard County ninth grader Abigail Pollock, wrote a letter to J. D. Salinger for the classic The Catcher in the Rye, as an individual entry. The Awards ceremony will take place at the CityLit Festival, held Saturday April 13th at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Wheeler Auditorium from 11am 12:15pm. All Maryland state finalists are presented with an award certificate. The winner and runner up for each level will also receive a cash prize. For information about the national program, visit www.lettersaboutliterature.org.

The 2013 Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher Award Recipient

The Maryland Humanities Council is pleased to award the 2013 Christine D. Sarbanes Award to Clinton Smith, a 10th grade English Teacher at Parkdale High School in Riverdale, MD (Prince Georges County). A New Orleans native and graduate of Davidson College, Mr. Smith has been a tour de force since joining the staff, obtaining over 1200 books for students through book drives, grants, and personal donations. Last year Mr. Smiths students improved their reading levels by more than two years. So far, this years students have also seen a similar increase. As a professional spoken word poet

who has competed internationally, he is a walking manifestation of how learning to read and write serves a purpose beyond the classroom.

Mr. Smith pushes his students to apply the thematic lessons they learn into a real world context. When they read Elie Wiesels Night, students went on to create proposals on standing up against bullying and racial discrimination and visited the Holocaust Museum to gain a deeper understanding of genocide. He also taps his network of area writers and poets to conduct workshops for his students, offering the opportunity to work with individuals who are experts in their craft and also come from some of the same communities as his students. Click here to access Clinton Smith's Poetry website. His principal, Cheryl Logan says, Mr. Smith will never know the life-long impact that his efforts had on his students achievement. They will never forget him or his belief that their education is the key to improving their futures and the future of many generations to come.

About the Christine D. Sarbanes Award

The Maryland Humanities Council (MHC) offers a special prize in memory of Christine D. Sarbanes, a former MHC board member. Honoring Christine Sarbanes' work as an educator, this annual award is part of the Maryland Letters About Literature contest and recognizes a Maryland teacher who works avidly to promote reading in his or her school. Nominations are accepted from principals and colleagues. Through a life of dedicated public service, Christine D. Sarbanes shared her love of literature and her passion for the humanities with the people of Maryland. She devoted her free time serving on the boards of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Walters Art Museum, Meals on Wheels, U.S. Committee for UNICEF, the University of Maryland Medical School, and served as Vice Chair of the Society for Preservation of Greek Heritage. Christine Sarbanes was the wife of former U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes and the mother of U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes, Janet Sarbanes, and Michael Sarbanes.

About the Maryland Humanities Council

The Maryland Humanities Council (MHC) is a statewide, educational 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that utilizes the humanities to encourage informed dialogue and increased civic engagement. MHC encourages Marylanders with different backgrounds and viewpoints to see, hear, and learn more about others and themselves because only informed, engaged citizens can build healthy, democratic societies. To learn more visit www.mdhc.org.

About the Maryland Center for the Book

One of 50 state affiliates of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, the Maryland Center for the Book (MCFB) is a program of the Maryland Humanities Council, with satellites at Talbot County Free Library and Washington County Free Library. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 as a public-private partnership to use the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. Letters About Literature is an annual program that encourages young people to read, be inspired, and write to the author who has changed their view of the world or themselves. Other Maryland Center for the Book programs include the offering of a literary walking tour of the Mt. Vernon Cultural District of Baltimore City, participation in book festivals and other literary events, and several reading and discussion programs. These include Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare for medical professionals, Making Sense of the Civil War at host sites statewide, and One Maryland One Book, bringing together diverse people in communities across the state through the reading and discussion of the same book each fall. The 2013 pick is King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village by Peggielene Bartels and Eleanor Herman.

One of 50 state affiliates of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, MCFB is a MHC program with satellites at Talbot County Free Library and Washington County Free Library. Please contact Andrea Lewis at alewis@mdhc.org for more information.