Friends’ Creative Writing Contest History

At this meeting, Mrs. Dolly Ryan, principal of South Grade School (the current Ralph Moody Elementary School), and fellow Friends and committee member, Elveda Lund, suggested a literary competition for Kindergarten through 12th grade in the Littleton Public School District. They suggested the following categories: Essay, Short Story, Poetry, and Haiku. It was suggested that the winning writings would be displayed at the Library.

 
Elveda Lund remembers that first year, “I contacted William Barrett, author of The Lilies of the Field, and he honored my request to give a talk to the winners and also give them a signed copy of the book, The book and movie were very popular at the time. I can only believe that the book is still a treasure for some of the recipients.”

In December 1967, about 380 Littleton school district students entered the contest. The 12 judges—all writers in the Denver metro area—had selected the best submissions. The first- and second-place winners and their families were honored at the program in the Arapahoe High School auditorium, which featured the best-selling author, William E. Barrett. He was best known for his novella, The Lilies of the Field, made into an award-winning film featuring Sydney Poitier. Each winner received a signed copy of Barrett’s book.

In 1968, 360 students entered the renamed “Children’s Creative Writing Contest”. The program was led by Mrs. James (Jean) Patton with Dr. Shugart leading the Friends’ organization. Mrs. James (Dolores) Curran, a well-known Littleton magazine writer and newspaper columnist, presented the awards

Through the 1970s and 1980s, slight changes in the contest emerged. The contest used to end at Winter Break, and then at some point, the Friends moved the deadline to the end of Spring Break. 

Starting in 1970, there were no 10th-12th grade entries. From 1987 on there have been no Kindergartners. 1986 saw the last of ninth and 10th graders. The categories continued as Short Story, Essay, Poetry, and Haiku until 1986 when Haiku was dropped. In 2008, the categories were only Short Story and Poetry. A few years featured a category for Illustrated Short Stories, Essays would come and go. Places have always listed firsts, and seconds, sometimes thirds, and a few years included honorable mentions. By the 2010s, the contest had dwindled in submissions; in 2019, there were only 22 submissions from 18 writers.

For the 2020 contest, the Friends knew that changes had to be instituted or we could no longer justify the volunteer time and resources for this program. Possibly the COVID-19 pandemic helped to encourage parents, teachers, and students to express themselves through creative writing. We dropped “Children's” from the title and also added High School entries back into the contest. In addition, the marketing and coordinators’ efforts increased. In 2020, the Friends were elated that 100 young authors submitted 118 entries.

In 2021, with the pandemic continuing, the contest entry process was pushed to the Friends’ website and nearly For all the students submitted their writings electronically. Marketing was targeted through the schools with posters, flyers, and other materials delivered to the front office staff (as we have for years) knowing these people are the touchpoint for the entire school. Every teacher and librarian received information and notification of their student’s submission.

For the 2021 competition, there were 254 submissions  with 60 awards given. Our categories changed to reflect  current trends in writing contests for young authors to  Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. In addition, we added a  new category, Collaboration (with a total of 13 entries),  because students and teachers asked for writers to be able to work together.

The 2022 55th annual contest continued to grow in the number of students participating. We enhanced our submission process with assistance from Emily Embry, Teen Librarian, and help from other Bemis Library staff. The CWC committee and volunteers also grew to over 20 people helping throughout the year. Arapahoe Community College (ACC) continued to serve as our judges, as they have done since 2020.

New this year, ACC offered to host an event allowing the first-place winning writers to share their work with an audience. “Write On! Step Up!” was successful with young writers, nervous yet bold, reading to a group of around 120 people. Also, this is the year that we have out-grown the Winning Writers’ wall plaque in the Children’s area and another board has been added.

For 2022, there were 293 total submissions, with 96 awards honored. There were 31 different public, private, and homeschools that participated.

Creative writing is definitely worth the Friends’ effort and resources. 

If you would like to be involved in the future of this program, please contact us at: CreativeWritingContest@gmail.com Resources:

• Friends Board Meeting Minutes, July 27, 1967
• “Author of ‘Lilies of the Field’ to Present Writing Awards”, Littleton Independent, January 25, 1968
• “Young writers to get prizes”, Littleton Independent, March 14, 1969.
• Friends' scrapbooks 1967-1969
• Corresponded with Elveda Lund, August 2020.

Research compiled from the 1967 -2019 publications. 

Lisa A Hendry

June 2022