PINEDALE — Pinedale Middle School student Delaney Edwards won first place in the 2024 Letters About Literature statewide contest hosted by the Wyoming Center for the Book and Wyoming Humanities. Wyoming students in grades fourth through twelfth were invited to write back to the author of a book that inspired them and changed their lives. 

Edwards was inspired by the book Star of Light and chose to write to its author Patricia St. John. The novel, set in North Africa, follows the story of Hamid and his little sister, Kinza, who is blind, as they escape from their mountain village to avoid their stepfather selling Kinza to a beggar. 

Edwards will receive a $150 gift card to bookshop.org for her first-place win in the statewide contest. Edwards beat out Cheyenne’s Evangeline Schon, who took second place, and Maile Lovato, who snagged third. Second-place winners receive a $100 gift card and third-place winners receive a $50 gift card. 

For more information about the Wyoming Center for the Book, visit thinkwy.org/programs/center-for-the-book.