ROCK SPRINGS — The winners of the 2023 Sweetwater County School District (SCSD) No. 1 Young Author Awards were recently announced.

The first-place winners advanced to the Sweetwater County Young Author Awards to compete against Sweetwater County School District No. 2 students for a chance to place at state.

Kena Wolf, SCSD No. 1 District Young Authors Coordinator, said the district received 550 entries this year, which was about 150 less entries than last year.

Of those entries, 38 advanced to the county competition and 30 of those are going to state.

Any county that has more than one school district has a county-wide competition and the best entries from each county move on to state, she said.

Graphic novel writing was added to the categories for the first time this year in addition to fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

All of the pieces are judged based on a very specific rubric, Wolf explained. Wolf, Samantha Worden, and Rebecca Stone judged all of the entries. In the event of a tie when the scoring is finished, the entries are then reread to determine a winner.

The first-place district winners move onto the county competition, where their entries are once again judged using the same rubric.

The winners of the district competition were announced at a ceremony on February 20 at the Rock Springs Junior High, while the Sweetwater County winners were announced on March 7 at the Rock Springs Junior High. The districts take turns hosting the county winner event, and Green River will host next year’s event.

The winning entries at local districts are then sent to the State Young Authors Contest by March 31. The winning entries and authors are then recognized at a state celebration after the pieces have been judged again.

 “I would like to again thank all the teachers and guardians that supported the amazing authors,” Wolf said.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Fiction Winners

Nonfiction Winners

Graphic Novel Winners

Poetry Winners

County Winners