Young Writers Day is an annual West Virginia event celebrating and encouraging young writers in grades 1 through 12, hosted by the West Virginia Department of Education in partnership with the Central West Virginia Writing Project, Marshall University, and the June Harless Center. It is a day of writing workshops, inspiration from local authors, and an awards ceremony recognizing contest winners. The day aims to foster a love of writing, critical thinking, and academic achievement among young students. The 41st annual Young Writers Day was held at the University of Charleston on May 2, 2025. Award winning West Virginia author Nora Shalaway Carpenter delivered the keynote address.
Young Writers Day showcases creativity and literary achievement in the Mountain State. In their submissions, students may express themselves on any topic and in any prose genre including fiction, nonfiction, narrative, memoir, or essay. Entries are judged on the following criteria: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.
Local students honored at the event were Clay County contest winners Jasealynn Harold (1st-2nd grade, “The Little Bird”), Tessa Kiser (3rd-4th grade, “Aliylah and the Arendella”), Lyla Titus (5th-6th grade, “The Climb”), Hannah Gandee (7th-8th grade, “My Homerun”), Alivia Gilliland (9th-10th grade, “Two-Four-Six-Eight”), and Sawyer Dobbins (11th-12th grade, “Green Boots”).Congratulations to these great students and best wishes in their future writing endeavors.
