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Wyoming Young Authors began in 1980. Roseine Church, WSRC historian until her death in 2003, was able to provide some information on the history of the Young Authors program in our state. According to Roseine, reading council members heard about Young Authors each year at the International Reading Association conferences.
In 1980, Betty Lou Pagel, district language arts coordinator for Laramie County School District #1 in Cheyenne, and some other teachers and reading council members realized that students needed to improve their writing. They wanted to get teachers of all grade levels interested in writing in their classrooms. Thus, the Wyoming State Young Authors program began.
At first, only Grades 1 - 12 in Laramie County School District #1 were involved. Each community judged their local entries and sent the three best to the district committee. Betty Lou recalls that not every grade or school in the district was represented. "There were several lovely winning books," she remembers.
The next year, under the guidance of Pat Henry, Young Authors was opened up to all districts and to kindergarten students. Over the years, many changes have taken place. For example, Roseine recalled that in the early days, illustrations were judged along with the writing.
In 2002, Wyoming Young Authors and Wyoming Writers, Inc. established a relationship to promote children's writing throughout the state. One of the benefits of this alliance is that four Young Authors winning excerpts are selected each year and included in Wyoming Writers, Inc. annual writing contest journal.
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