The South Carolina Center for the Book is proud to announce that Jordan Slisher of Westminister, SC has been named a national winner in Letters About Literature.

Letters About Literature is a national competition of the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores and the state affiliate Centers for the Book. Students in grades 4 through 12 write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, explaining how that author's work changed the students' way of thinking about the world or about themselves.

Jordan Slisher, an eighth grade student at Westminster Middle School, is a national winner in the Level II competition for students in grades 7 and 8. He wrote a compelling letter to J.K. Rowling describing how his enthusiasm for her book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone helped him overcome a reading disability and become a book lover.

Jordan's letter went through three rigorous review stages to be named a national winner. A national committee selected his letter as one of the top twenty out of over 1,000 letters submitted by South Carolina students, and a South Carolina committee then selected his letter as the state winner. As a state winner, the letter was resubmitted to a national committee at the Library of Congress Center for the Book to be reviewed along with the other 49 winning state letters. Finally, his letter was recognized as one of two national winners in Level II.

A member of the South Carolina selection committee said, "Jordan Slisher's letter to J.K. Rowling was incredibly inspiring. In clear, flowing prose, he describes a reading disability that he overcame with hard work and diligence. His natural, espressive style will serve him well if he ever wants to pursue a career in writing, and his inspirational message is one that many struggling students should hear."

Jordan Slisher and his familly will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC for the National Book Festival in September 2008, where Jordan will read his letter.

The South Carolina Center for the Book is the South Carolina affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book in Washington, DC and is a cooperative project of the South Carolina State Library, the USC School of Library and Information Science, and The Humanities Council SC. Formerly known as the Palmetto Book Alliance, the SC Center for the Book changed its name in 2006 to align with the 49 other Centers for the Book across the country. The Center's mission is to celebrate South Carolina's rich literary heritage and bring public attention to the importance of books, writers, and reading. Letters About Literature is one of several projects of the Center.